The Day Before Halloween at ISTE

Well as I may not get on tomorrow I thought I would look around today at some more festive decorations. It is so cool that in SL you can have smiling ghosts, dancing skeletons, and flying skeletons. So much more then the average home in RL can have.

So as is my norm I stopped by ISTE to see who was around and to check out the decorations. They've added more since last week so it looks even better. I had to force some sunshine to get a good picture, but it was midnight and looked great.

Splash Aquatics

Well some how I found this place and I was not to sure what to expect, but as I look around it has some interesting aspects. Once you get past all the items for sale, they have a spot that is like a muesum/aquarium. It is a nice little walk through with places to see and do things. I took a moment for some fun and posed inside a sharks mouth.

They have a neat poster on one wall that is a cut-away view with the labeled anatomy of a whale and of a shark. Right next to the poster is a tidal pool with different birds and animals that you would find there.

One of the neatest things though was the undersea walk. You walk through a glass tunnel with fish all around. If you use the mouse look to explore, you will also see dolphines, rays, jelly fish, sharks, eels, and a whale. There is even a place up on the top level to enter the water that you walked through the tunnel.

Halloween is Coming

Well it is one week to Halloween and SL is really showing the spirit of the season. I have seen many different location decorated with the feel of Halloween. Here are some examples of Halloween in full gear.

ISTE Island:

When you get the main entrance on ISTE Island you will be greeted by what appears to be a floating/flying ghost. The ghost is actually a skeleton with a hooded cloak. There are also phantom lights floating around it. This could be a lot of fun as ghost/skeleton follows a pattern but looks cool flying there. They also have some pumpkins sitting by the bulletin board.

NOAA Virtual Island:

When I first got here today, it looked normal, but as I turned around and began to move I noticed pumpkins every where. It looks like someone placed pumpkins all over the place; in door ways, near benches, and down walk ways. There were even some on the runway.

Well if I find some more I'll post thme, but watch out for ghosts and goblins as we get closer to Halloween!

Educational Information

I've been adding a lot of information to my wiki and other blog, as well as podcasting with a friend and coworker. This information is for educators who would like to learn more about technology in the classroom. Take a look at the links on my blog to check out some of the new information that has been added recently.

Please contact me if you have classroom technology ideas you would like to share and I'll gladly add them on to the wiki and blog. Stay tuned for more from the weekly podcast as well as we continue through the end of 2007.

Thanks!

Renaissance Island

What an interesting place to see! I have had a blast walking around this area and readnig the notecards for the different sections. They have a Bulwark fortification with cannons mounted, a cathedral, docks, a market square, and so much more. It is a nicely rendered look at an old time village with all the look and feel. They have gardens with flowers and herbs located in the village area as well. There is also a representation of the Globe Theater.



It would be a great place for a Social Studies teacher to take a class on a tour. Offering up a chance to see the area as it would have looked in that time period. Also, if an English teacher was to do a reinactment of a play or scene from Shakspeare in the Globe Theater, what a great experience for the students.

This picture is of the Reading Primley Bulwark.

Another Museum

The Museum of Motion Pictures, Memorabillia and Miscellany

This is an interesting museum with movie posters on the walls with different themes. The downstairs was filled with old horror moive posters (some being very old classics) as well as photos of different stars. The second floor had some great movie posters from some classics as well as a section for family movies (including some of my favorites like The Secret of Nimh and Watership Down).

Check it out as I'm hoping the continue to add more posters and photos. It is a very interesting trip trough the different posters of movies that have graced the silver screen.

Museums in Second Life

One of the things that I really enjoy about Second Life is the ability to see so many wonderful things in one place that you might not see together. One way to do this is to check out some of the museums around Second Life. As one of first trips back into the virtual world I've decided to some museum trips.

Virtual Starry Night:

Virtual Starry Night is the Second Life Van Gogh exhibit. As you walk around the exhibit you will see many of the different works that Van Gogh created. Some of these have been rendered in 3D so that you can move around them. This exhibit not only shows his masterpieces, but also a small expo from Gaugin who lived with Van Gogh in Arles, France. Pictured to the left is the 3D rendering of the painting The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles that is hanging on the wall. It is really neat to be able to walk through his painting. The next picture is just a sample of some of the paintings that are on display in the exhibit. I chose to get a picture of the Irises as they are one of my favorites in real life. I would recommend this museum/exhibit to anyone interested in art or a teacher who is looking to show case some culture or art appriciation.

Again, I would highly recommend this museum as it was a fantastic walk through as well as being able to see pieces from collections that are not in one place in the real world. Fantastic for anyone who enjoys some art.

I'll try and add a few more on as time permits!

ISTE Island

Well I was hanging out on ISTE Island and I had a chance to talk with several people. I know that during the day it is quite there, but it was great to see about 5 people here today. I had a chance to discuss with one person about the uses of SL in Rural school districts. As a person who is looking to share technology in the classroom it is great to see the people trying SL and realizing it is not a game.

Well I'll be back online soon. I'm trying to do more in SL and I'm trying to do more with my blog!

Trying to Get Back On

Well as my computer has been upgraded and I now can get back into Second Life, I'll try and get some more posts going about Second Life in Education. It has been a while and now I really what to experience some new things and make some new treks. I hope to explore more of Second Life and cronicle my time here as a way to share that information.

I look forward to meeting and greeting more people in Second Life!

Congrats to Puritan's Guide!

A big congrats going out to Puritan's Guide to Second Life for getting mentioned in a news article! The artcile was quoting a section of her page about vocabulary terms in SL. Here is the Blog she did with the vocab that was quoted! It is a fantastic list that she compiled many months ago and added to 5 months ago

As I have traveled around Second Life, I have noticed my vocabulary has been increasing. There are terms and phrases that seem to turn my head every once in a while. Any new individual to Second Life, especially those teaching or students entereing, would want to become familiar with these terms so they can understand what they mean. The following is a basic small list of vocabulary used in virtual worlds:

*Alt – Refers to a resident’s other avatars. One person may own multiple avatars.
Animation Override - an enhancement to your avatar that overrides a basic function, like walking, to make it more lifelike.

*Avatar - 1) The digital representation of your virtual self in Second Life. Or, in plain English, the character in Second Life that's you; 2) Other people's characters. Generally, any other thing with a name above it (though there are very convincing cardboard cutouts in Second Life); 3) A "costume" or outfit; a full set of avatar body parts, clothing, and/or attachments that provides a specific look.

*Calling card - An inventory item you can trade with other residents. Calling cards serve as a contact list of sorts.

*Chat channel - One of over a billion pseudo-"frequencies" that objects and avatars can chat on. Avatars normally speak on channel 0, and can only hear chat on channel 0. Objects can chat and listen on any channel. For more information on chat channels go to http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=116

*Derez - To remove (derez) an object from a sim within Second Life. This generally is done through deleting the object or taking the object into inventory.
Freebie - these are items is SL that are free. Some freebies are only for individuals that are in SL 30 days or less. This can be vouchers for hair from GUrl or money trees.

*Grid - The world of Second Life is sometime referred to as a "grid" or "the grid". One grid is what other virtual worlds may call one world or one "shard". All visible islands and regions on a map are included in the term "grid".

*Griefer – People who go around in Second Life and grief other avatars. It might be caging, shooting, etc. that is unexpected and not asked for; a form of terrorist attack on your avatar. Does not do harm and is more of a nuisance.

*Infohub - A Linden-owned location inworld. Infohubs used to be telehub centers for Second Life.

*Inworld - 1) Anything that takes place within the virtual environment of Second Life. 2) The state of being logged into Second Life.

*L$ - A Linden dollar (L$, "LindenBucks", or "Lindens") is the inworld Virtual Currency used in Second Life. Most transactions you make inworld with other residents will be made in L$.

*Lag, Laggy - 1) The delay inherent to a connection between two computers on the Internet, especially an unusually long delay between a client and a server. 2) A delay or interruption in a network or Internet connection caused by slow response times and/or lost or missing data. 3) (technically incorrect but popular usage) Slow or jerky performace in a 3D application caused by an overworked processor, memory bandwidth, video card, or hard drive. 4) (technically vague popular usage) Any situation where part of the Second Life experience is not performing as desired. http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=273

*Machinima - Machine Animation or Machine Cinema, the art of creating movie-quality animations and other cool effects in SL.

*Mature - Second Life uses a rating system for sims to let the user know what type of content/behavior to expect in that area. Mature or (M) regions may include (among other things) profanity, nudity, and sexual content. The Second Life Community Standards still apply in these areas, so discretion is still recommended.

*Mouselook – Mouselook is the first-person camera view in SL, as seen from the eyes of the avatar. When in this mode the mouse is used to move the camera around, hence the name. Mouselook is often used for weapons, vehicles, and grabbing objects.

*Mule - the use of an avatar for carrying inventory items not used a lot by the main avatar. A Mule avatar is also used in many instanced to experiment with looks HUDs, skins, shapes, etc.

*Newbie - (popular usage) A newcomer to Second Life; a resident who has joined for a relatively short period of time and/or is not familiar or comfortable with Second Life's nuances. Also spelled 'noob' or 'n00b'.

*Notecard - A small text file within Second Life. You can embed pictures, landmarks, and even objects inside notecards.

*Primitive/Prim - The basic building block of Second Life, also called a 'prim'. All in-world objects are constructed from primitives. A prim is a basic shape (such as a box, sphere, cylinder, etc.) that can be manipulated, stretched, cut, twisted, hollowed, and otherwise mangled into various forms. A builder can link a collection of prims together to form one cohesive object. The math works out to 15,000 prims for each 65,536 m2. So for example, a 512 m2 parcel has 117 prims, a 4096 m2 parcel has 937.

*Region - A named area within Second Life, also commonly referred to as a simulator or a sim. Second Life is divided into square regions, each 256m on a side and assigned a name. The regions are aligned and assembled so that the borders between them are, for all intents and purposes, seamless. You can stand a one side of a region border, with your friend on the other. Despite the fact that the two of you are in different regions, you can chat freely, throw a baseball across, even drive a car back and forth, without interruption. Current limit to a region is of 65536 m2 (256m x 256m)*Rez - (commonly attributed to the movie 'Tron') 1) To bring an object into 3d-space within Second Life. This is usually done by dragging the object from inventory into the world. 2) To create a new primitive in Second Life through the building tools.
Sim – Sims in Second Life are characterized by the area. Generally, 25 -30 active avatars can be in a sim before it lags or slows down. Avatars that are observing or watching can be between 50 and 75 in a sim before it lags. There may be multiple sims in a region.

*SLURL - a link you can click on in a web browser that takes you to a particular place in SL. A Slurl is made up by the following format: http://slurl.com/secondlife/region/xcoordinate/ycoordinate/zcoordinate Anyone can make an Slurl with this formula.

*Telehub - (deprecated) A centralized teleport location in Second Life. When using a telehub in Second Life, you arrived at the closest telehub to your intended location. You could then fly to your destination from there. Telehubs are no longer in Second Life; you can teleport directly to your destination.

*Teleport - To instantly travel to a location (as opposed to manually walking or flying there). Residents can teleport via the map, with landmarks, or through invitations given by other residents.

* Actual definition from http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/index.php?action=glossary

Much thanks Dembe for the great list!