The Aerdrome ...

New Album 6/19/09 9:42 PM

Well, today I visited the Aerodrome. I heard about it in 'the unofficial guide to second life'. It was under the section of 'places of interest'. I must say, it was interesting. Even though I am not now, nor was I ever an aviation afficionado, it did seem rather cool. There was a lot of things on display, as well as little personal planes for sale. There were historical models, some which may or may not have ever existed as well as some prototypes that were obviously never made in the manifest world.

Learning notes: I had a bit of difficulty with operating the elevator (perhaps anther tutorial I missed), so I flew around to get to the runway area. Here I got to practice some of y skills at adjusting altitude while flying. That was cool. There was also the bit about having a problem getting out of there. I wanted to teleport and couldn't. The network was experiencing difficulty. That was a little annoying. So I just signed out. That, I think is part of the problem with attempting this from a developing nation (Oman) with limited resources in the way of bandwidth. But by the next time I logged in, I was able to leave. Though all through the process of trying and failing to enter another area, I was wondering if I was doing it wrong. I know that some regions have forced points of entry, maybe this one had a forced point of departure. It turned out not to be the case. The one thing that is still getting to me is that there is no immediate incentive to learn how to do things. The learning is often de Facto as you find something you like, or are interested in. The learning curve has increased as I have set goals of exploration and faced the challenges that occur from fulfilling these goals (i.e. the junkyard->rezzing->inventory). So far, this little experiment has been a success as far as learning. I have also come a long way with analyzing my own learning and learning through simulation. Most of these Epiphanies are only nascent ponderings., but I do see the 'micro genesis' of greater awareness in them. Well, till next time. Enjoy the pictures.

Gaius

Educational access to second life tutorials and workshops...

Well I was just in my inbox (gmail) and I was sorting through the various pieces of 'junk-mail' I get (bills mostly' and Friend requests from bots that don't exist, or have met me, but still refer to me as 'sexy' and other ultra-familiar words of greeting. Most of my e-mails are met with varying degrees of 'loathing and fear. One e-mail, or e-mails that I keep getting is received with a bitter-sweet kind of response. They are the emails I keep getting from the 'New Citizens Group'. They are always pimping the latest class or workshop. They are always really interesting, and useful. The first time I heard about them I got really excited! I was really into experiencing an 'in-world' learning experience... It might be very important and useful, not only to get the knowledge available from such an event, but also in seeing how the teaching process 'plays-out' in the 'in'world' environment. What kind of modifications are needed and employed during 'in-world' pedagogy? It could be soooo helpful, and they were nice enough to have them at the convenient time of 4-6 PM. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that's SL time (or West-Coast Cali time), anput 12 hours from me (located in Oman). That kills me... it assumes that everyone in the world using second life is going to be located in the states. I mean, If I wanted to check out this workshop I would have to get on the computer at 4-6 AM. That's a little intense. I mean I'm pretty gung-ho for all this, but there must be an easier way. I think I could really benefit from such kinds of tutorials, but I don't know... they are all scheduled for times that I would be in bed. I'm not proposing that we should have 'local' time workshops in for every region and country. But I am saying that Maybe they should have a more compatible schedule. Maybe two or three, one 12 hours away from the original time, and another 6 hours away from that. This way it would accommodate more users than this current system. I mean as a earning tool for language, one of the major resources for new learners of the technical aspect are the (pring resources. This is a very clear case of the learners being separated from a Major resource. Let's face it if you can't learn the system easuly, you would be less likely to participate often. Now throw on top of this technical challenge a language barrier. I would also like to know what kind of materials are used in these workshops, and also what kind of language is used. This might put a a new-spin' on Second Life. Well these are some thoughts I'm going to ponder ab it more. Right now I'm going to stew in my discontent. See you 'in-world'

The Junkyard Part Two...

Well, the main 'great learning' experience that happened at Yabni's Junkyard was 'my little discovery'. I had all this stuff from Yabni's, so I decided to try and remember what this disconnected cob-webby faded memory of a inventory-tutorial taught me. I went into my inventory and started creating folders, to start and organize all the stuff I got at the Junkyard.

Well one of the things that happened from that point, was that I actually got to see the individual components that were in those 'boxes'. A lot of cool stuff. Though I must admit, some of the things in those boxes were completely useless in my opinion (though I have to be careful, this blog is a testament to it: things that seem useless now can become totally clutch and indispensable at a later time). So I got to have my first go at 'sorting the chaff from the wheat', and got to throw some stuff in the trash for the first time. I also got a go at setting up what will hopefully be a meaningful system in my inventory that will allow me to sort, store, and find things easily.

What I thought was amazing, was what I found in the pile of stuff. I found all these really important notes and newbie stuff. I'm not sure where and when I got this stuff from (the past two weeks has consisted of a lot of 'mad-grabs' of free newbie stuff. But the point is, I didn't realize this stuff was here, could've been really useful. I blame this on the fact that I was so weired out when I was in Orientation Island (and the fact that I left early be accident), and didn't retain much. It was just overload!!! Everything was new, and everything I clicked on was a note-card (which I found very impersonal and invasive at the time), which basically said (blah blah blah blah blah). I am not exactly sure why I had such a confusing and disturbing experience in the beginning. Maybe I'll make another Avatar (now Gaius, don't be jealous baby!) , and re-check it out. That actually sounds like a great plan to understand my reaction to the early period of 'acclimatization. Point being, part of the hard time I had in-world was the not knowing anything, because I didn't go through all of my stuff and find these note-cards, and not-know how to mess with inventory because I didn't know it might be important because I couldn't focus on the tutorials (because they were weird). I think for those of us who have never used the SIMS or don't have any previous 'simulation' experience are sooo busy making head and tails of the environment and trying to figure out the 'physics' of this place, that learning discreet tasks via 'tutorials' embedded in this new reality has a real taxing effect on the effectiveness of the tutorials, not to mention retention of these tutorials

I also got an opportunity to 'rez'. Now, I'll be honest, I never really knew what anybody REALLY meant by rez. It is apparent to me that it must have something to do with actually being visible in second life. Like for example, a SIM 'rezzing' means that it is loading and becoming visible to the 'eye'. If you drag an item from your inventory onto your Avatar, it rezzes, and you can actually see your avatar wearing or holding it. I did this in the 'backyard' area of Yadni's (its the part of the Junkyard where your allowed to 'rez' scripts and test stuff out. Quite handy! Though be careful, sometimes things are not meant to be worn or be 'rezzed' onto your avatar. For example, I rezzed a 'zip-gun' and a 'fire-works launcher' onto Gaius. Well the zip-gun appeared in his hand, and well, the fire-work tube, well he was 'wearing' that as a hat. I don't know if that is what it was supposed to do, but that's what it did. But anyway, I got my first 'rez-session'. It was cool.

I also did a bit of 'cosmetic surgery' on Gaius. I didn't realize that you could do a 'mid-in-world' makeover on him. He actually looks less like an EMO FOP now, and more like me in real life. I'm not sure if that's an improvement for him, but I am strangely a little more comfortable with it. I did however, get to practice my skills at manipulating my observable appearance. Which, when I get a better at, perhaps I will be able to do some very interesting things to Gaius visually. But, like I said, I am a lot more comfortable with his appearance (I think it is interesting what this alludes to regarding my identity and my willingness to 'pretend' when I'm Gaius. Hmmmmmm)

Junkyard, Inventory and the dawning of understanding...

Yadni's Junkyard:

Leda 200, 14, 53 (Mature) Newbies Paradise

Today I checked out something I'd seen advertised in a few different spots in SL (Bear, New Albion, and other NCI places). It's called Yadni's Junkyard. It's basically a place where you can get free scripts for almost anything you need for a start up 2l. Everything is there, from the necessary to the most bizarre unessential add-ons you can think of.

A few 'days' ago I was thinking about why there were certain tutorials that resurfaced again and again and again. Some of these seemed completely superfluous to me. I couldn't think of the reason there were so many tutorials on how to work your inventory. SOme of these tutorials even talked about a 'time' in your 'life' when you had sooo much stuff that you really need a good system in place for inventory and storage. They even mentioned how to 'get rid of stuff' using 'boxes' to jettison things out of your inventory. I remember thinking "dude, right".

Now I get it. I took me to come here to understand the amount of scripts and objects that have been amassed by the populace of this place. So many, and s much for free. Here is the place where you can obtain a lot of the stuff that is just old hat, commonplace or just the product of a overactive imagination, and the desire to experiment. In a few minutes I have amassed a 'world' of scripts. So many that this little voice in my head was like 'ok, try and remember that tutorial about how to use a system of folders in your inventory'.

In the Junkyard there are walls of gadgets, textures, even cars, and house-scripts to be had. Piles of things to pick up. So I did! There is even a place in the 'backyard' where the scripts you get here are enabled (you can't use them inside. Kinda cool. I want to check out the rest of this are, see what other possibly useful places are in the neighborhood.

In the very near future, I will re-explore the skills I have seen repeated a few times so far. A good rule of thumb is, f someone went through the trouble of making a larger billboard script to show you how to do something, chances are its important.
Problem is, that there's no way a newbie can know. And I don't really remember any kind of 'Do this, then do that, this will be important and here's why' list around anywhere. I guess I was so freaked out by the lack of really understanding this new place that I didn't read the 'signs' literally and figuratively.

Well the upswing is that I 'get' how to use my inventory. I had a bit of practice just now. I think that it would be useful to put a link to a place like this in the tutorial and also give a 'card' that tells you what to do wit ha task on it for when you arrive. Maybe something requiring the collection of few specific items, with instructions on a task that makes you sort them , work with the filters, create some folders and then get rid of a few (perhaps in a box). This, I think would make the learning meaningful... it would also create a 'just in time' element to the task, making you use what you learned immediately, Situating it in a meaningful and useful context. Then maybe you could go behind the 'wall' and try a few of these scripts out. (let you practice running them and 'rezzing' these objects and do-dads. Hmmm Sounds pretty sound to me.

GaiusGotterAlbum Yadnisjunkyard