About this Blog

As a blogger of some two years experience of both a team blog for professional issues and a personal blog of musings and diary entries I have decided to take the plunge and set myself my own professional blog which will help me to reflect on my professionalism and my continuing professional development.


Wednesday 12 November 2008

My first experience with SL



Well, I created my avatar - Almenah Telling almost a year ago now. My colleague and I were developing an MSc to be delivered on line and wanted to look at SL as a space for potential teaching areas - or if not then certainly for a graduation ceremony for our students. It was my colleague who introduced me to SL - she had heard of it but not joined so we registered at the same time.
Registering was relatively painless - although choosing a name was harder than I thought - I chose an old family christian name (Almenah) as I had been researching my family tree about the same time and it was fresh in my mind. I have chosen a rather conservative look for myself and am still not confident in changing my appearance - my friend was more adventurous but ended up wearing a box and didn't know how to change it - so I have yet to experiment.
I arrived in orientation island and practiced moving around - with similar experiences that others have talked about - bumping into people, and finding maps etc difficult to read - but this didn't take too long. Realising that I could walk through water, fall off high things etc and still get up was strange. Have you seen this youtube video? A very real representation of my first steps!!
I must admit to not making the most of orientation and I was soon searching and teleporting to other areas - trying to keep to educational areas - but not always suceeding - and there are a number of areas that can be rather shocking to see at first.
I ahve tried to find freebies, win money etc but have not been successful, I have, however, sat in a flying sleigh with santa, ice skated, eaten a roast dinner and met my friend for a coffee.
I left Almenah for quite a few months as other things took precedence - but I am really enjoying the opportunity to ressurect her and find my way around with the support and guidance of people who know what they are doing.

Just as a quick addition - I have just attended my first meeting in SL - I have discussed painting, calculus and tap dancing with people from Venezuela, Belgium, Portugal and Reading - how surreal is that! Oh, and for some reason I appeared to have a ghostly spectre sitting next to me - but apparently that was a settings problem - I wonder if SL has hauntings?

5 comments:

Sarah Stewart said...

Just discovered you have a personal blog. I have just been accepted to join a big SL research project. I am going to be building a birth unit to teach students about normal birth.

Angela said...

Hi Sarah - just recently started this blog - I need to make sure that I keep all of them going!
Your project sounds really exciting - I shall follow your progress through your blog for sure. I really do think SL has great potential for education - just need to understand how to get space, build etc - which is what I'm hoping this new course I am on will help me with

Cedric Demeyere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cedric Demeyere said...

Angela,
Reading your comment on first steps in SL, I followed your link to the YouTube video. Very funny, indeed.
One does recognize a few situations, thinking of one's own experiences!
Gtrs, Cedric

Technology of Dentistry said...

Your write up on SL has been of help even now that I have not been able to access SL I feel comfortable that when I get there I will not be 'lost'. Thank you