Monday
June 22, 2009: 4:34 PM
Fourth Exercise:
A.
Before you begin the tasks
How likely is it that you will become good at this particular task?
Doubtful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Almost Certain
Type your number here: 10
Briefly explain your rating: I already have many hours of experience working camera controls, inventory management so I do not have any concerns about failing this task.
How likely is it that the skills you are learning in this task will be useful in your career?
Doubtful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Almost Certain
Type your number here: 8
Briefly explain your rating: This exercise teaches be to do learn the foundations of doing things so that I can improve on those skills later. Therefore it should be useful in my career.
To what extent are you feeling frustrated doing this particular task?
Not Frustrated 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extremely Frustrated
Type your number here: 1
Briefly explain your rating: I do not feel frustrated. I am hoping that I can learn something new during this exercise.
To what extent are you feeling irritated doing this particular task?
Not Irritated 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Extremely Irritated
Type your number here: 1
Briefly explain your rating: I do not feel irritated because I am not frustrated. Typically when I feel frustrated I then become irritated.
Virtual Ability Orientation ONE in Second
Life - part 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAjG4Tv6LvU&fmt=22
I remember these tutorials from the first place I visited in SL! Before watching the video I was expecting this video to be a how to guide for using Virtual Ability. However, I was luckily surprised to notice that this video includes a sort of behind the scenes of reasons behind certain objects and areas. For example, the creators of Virtual Ability created signage with a beige background because people with visual impairments have a difficult time reading signs with a white background. Also, the idea of maps for our UH platform in the sky may be very beneficial if our area becomes larger. I enjoy using maps and find that many areas on SL have them.
Virtual Ability: Orientation TWO in Second
Life: part 2 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntRpndqwO6E&fmt=22
This video was very basic for me. I feel as if I have an adequate understanding of camera usage and I have even followed a few avatars by accident. One time when I was at Help Island I zoomed in on an interesting looking avatar. Then all of a sudden they took flight and were flying somewhere fast … and I was FOLLOWING THEM! At first I thought, “What’s happening?!” Then when I pressed the forward button on my keyboard, the camera came back to where my avatar was. That was an interesting experience. I know there are exercises ahead on observing the activities of other avatars and I kept wondering how that would be possible without seeming intrusive. Now that I accidentally followed an avatar with just my camera, I know that it is possible. One other thing I learned was that robots (like Bob the monkey) have green text whereas avatars (or humans) have white text. This is useful to be because at least I’ll know what type of intelligence I’m talking to in the future. Some robots I have encountered are very convincing. One trick I’ve learned is to ask, “Who created you?” and typically robots will answer the name of their creator.
Virtual Ability Orientation THREE in Second
Life: Part 3 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFE5G8gP5_g&fmt=22
This area covered how to open boxes, wear items, take back trash. Although In the teleporting tutorial area I noticed that the speaker said that the teleports deliberately resemble the “teleport” device that is shown on Stargate. She further went on to say that this was done on purpose because the creators of Virtual Ability wanted the teleports to be familiar to those who use Virtual Ability. I found this very funny because the audience of Virtual Ability typically are people with disabilities. Which further implies people with disabilities watch Stargate. This makes me wonder if many people with disabilities indeed watch Stargate … and that makes me wonder if I’m weird because I used to LOVE watching Stargate. Anyway, their teleporting device is missing the big wave of water upon activation, so it’s not a true Stargate portal … hahahaha.
I found the tree climbing interesting. I’ve never found a tree in SL that I could climb. Although I haven’t tried to climb very many tree.
Other YouTube Videos to watch:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72CvvMuD6Q
This video didn’t’ work. It is marked as private.
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5ze9M3AJ4&feature=related
This video didn’t’ work. It is marked as private.
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMGR9q43dag&feature=related
This video explored different ways of using SL for education. Many areas in SL can be utilized in almost all areas of education such as business, art, theater, history, science, and psychology (although psychology wasn’t mentioned in this video). When the video showed an avatar entering the Louvre, it was pointed out that a statue would follow you with his eyes. This made me wonder what would happen if multiple avatars stood around the statue at once. Would the eyes follow everyone on their own screen or would the statue malfunction because there are too many people. If there is time then I will drag Yoko with me and experiment with this statue.
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA&feature=related
After watching numerous videos during my membership with SL, I’ve come to realize that a popular theme during videos is, “Discovery is only limited by your own imagination.” I agree that this is true however after hearing it many times it’s losing its affect on me. One of the highlights of this video for me is that there are full classes available and also one-hour tutorials. Too bad there isn’t a link or schedule posted for these classes because I would seriously consider attending.
The picture below gives me an idea for our platform in the sky. A structured area for Prof. James would be nice for him where he can instruct a class where students learn to rezz items and open them. Also, this would be useful because it would make it easy to see which students needed help. For example, if Prof. James instructs everyone to take their box back once it’s opened, the students who haven’t taken their box back are easily identified. In fact, Prof. James could make a Psy409 teaching opportunity and have his teaching assistants help him with these sorts of SL in-world lessons.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ohio%20University/20/39/25
The picture below is a theater for students to watch videos. I like the idea of the Prof. being able to stand (or sit) in the back row and observe the students and the video. Maybe a similar idea could be implemented into our platform in the sky.