Group Tours

This week in Second Life the class split up into groups, picked an island to go to, and gave the class a tour of that island. I thought this was a pretty cool activity cuz we got to see a ton of different places that are present within second life. My group gave a tour at an amusement park. We thought since amusement parks are places people go to in high numbers in real life, then people in second life would want to go to them also. when we took the class on the tour there werent many people there, but when we went one evening, there were ALOT of people. The reason i really liked this amusment park was cuz they had a variety of rides. There was a ferris wheel, hot air balloon ride, a merry go round, a water ride, bumper cars, and many more. On top of all that, all the rides were actually rideable, meaning, the avatars could actually sit on the rides. This made the island alot more interactive, and we thought that the class would enjoy it. Unfortunately, there wasnt enough time to see the entire island, or to ride all the rides.

Some of the other islands that i particularly enjoyed were the nasa island and especially the NBA jam session island. I love basketball so that island was definately something that peaked my interest. i actually went back to that island after class was over, and i got to meet and talk to several other basketball fans, and even some Houston Rockets fans . The nasa island was also pretty cool, cuz it actually reminded me of the actual nasa space center i used to go to when i was a kid. It brought back childhood memories.

Overall, i really enjoyed doing this activity. This activity was much more group oriented than activities weve done in the past. My group first had to decide on which island to go to, and then once we figured that part out we had to decide wihich parts of the island to show and who would talk when. Usually group work is done in person, but this time most of the work was done electronically over the internet, and even in second life. That was something new to me, and it took alot of getting used to.  Parts of our tour went according to plan, while at other times, we had to change our plans on the spot. I guess, we’ll be discussing more of this during class tomorrow, so ill save it for the class discussion.

my long lost first post of the semester lol

Imran Kungfu

My avatar is a male, and it looks like a real person. I decided to make my avatar a real person cuz it makes the whole experiece seem alot more life like. Even though i had the option to make my avatar look like a fantasy creature, i felt that this appearance describes be better. This is my first time using Second Life, and before this i had no idea what it was. Since we are still in a classroom environment, i felt that making my avatar look like a human and resemble me would be a better idea. My avatar;s name is Imran Kungfu. I decided to keep my real first name, and to be completely honest, i chose the first last name that stuck out to me. I didnt feel like changing my first name for Second Life becuase i felt that it would make the SL experience less realistic. Also, i have never thought about having a different first name, so i was having a hard time coming up with one lol.

 So far my experience in SL has been a good one. I have learned how to walk and to fly while on orientation Island, i have also learned how to drive and communicate with others in SL. One thign that i still need to do is tweek the appearance of my avatar, cuz the way it looks right now does not relate to me too well. THe next chance i get, i will take some time out to tweek my avatars experience. SL makes me feel like there is a completely different world out there. Before i started this class, i had no idea that big time companies such as Dell used SL for various business/company activities. When im using SL, it makes me feel liek im playign a video game. My only fear/concern about Second Life is that in the future, everything will be virtual, not that thats a bad thing. I do believe that SL is an amazing creation and has alot of potential in gthe future. i was also amazed to find out that SL has a real economy with real money that can be compared to the US dollar.

 I am very excited to continue to use SL and learn more about it. I am anxious to get to our classroom island and begin the different thigns that we will be doing this semester. I am really looking forward to the group project  later on in the semester. I am really glad that i took this class, i feel like it will be a great learning experience, and that i will be able to apply the things i learn in real life.

Exploring New Places Within Second Life

So this week i pretty much spent my time in Second Life exploring different places just for fun and because my group needs to find an interesting place to take the rest of the class. While roaming around, i came across the official Mercedes Benz island. The island had a test drive track and various test drive vehicles, but Mercedes Benz was focusing on promoting their new C-class model. I ended up spending alot of time here. Like we discussed in class, people will stay on an island that has alot of people, and when i came on to the Mercedes Benz island, there were ALOT of people here. I really like cars, so it was fun talking to other car enthusiasts from all over the world. I test drove some of their cars as well. This might be the island that we show to the rest of the class if the rest of my group agrees.

Also this week i had my first REAL building experience. Those videos on youtube, were a little annoying but at the same time they were really helpful and to the point. I really enjoyed building the flag and the bench. It was frustrating at first, but after a while i got the hang of it. My building skills arent that amazing yet, but with some more practice, Im sure that my building skills will get better. Besides the flag, we also made benches. The problems i had making the bench, was mainly the camera angles. It was hard to tell if prims were lining up or in the correct place because of the way the camera was angled. It took longer than expected, but eventuallly, i think i made a pretty good bench.

 I also enjoyed going to Burning Life this week with the rest of the class. It was really coool to see the different types of second life art. after we visited burning life in class, i went back on my own. this time there were alot more people there, and i spent some time talking to some of them. I found it really intersting that burning life is based on an event that happens in real life. ANyway, im excited to go on the different group tours this week, im sure it will be really fun and intersting.

Working in a Group

Working in a group is nothing new to me, but i can definately say that this was my first time working in a group in a virtual world. It was a new experience, both with good and bad experiences. It was much different than working in a group in real life, because first of all you had to type whatever you wanted to say, and u had to take turns talking, or the conversation would get all jumbled up. This would only confuse the situation more and it was more difficult to order the survival items. Our group only had three people in it including me, so it was a little easier to communicate. im sure that the larger groups that had 5 or 6 students had a harder time communicating and coming to a final agreement about the survival items.

 At first it was hard to chat becuase everyoen wanted to say their opinion about what the first few  items were. Eventually, everyone in my group started taking turns. it got easier after a few minutues. we took turns saying what we thought the first 3 itmes were. then after we agreed, we went on to the next three items and so on until we were done with all the items. we didnt have too much time for this activity, but when there was disagreement, we just took tiurns explaining why we thought what we did. Again our group was small, so it was easier  to get everyone to agree. In this kind of situation, copperation definately helps.

We didnt really have a leader that emerged in this activity. we just took turns saying what we thought was right. In the larger groups i think it would have been very efficient to have a leader. someone who could control who was talking and could handle disagreement and maybe execute a vote if one was needed. The leader could maybe also get to determine  who gets to talk when so that the chat does not get confusing nad jumbled. In class i think this activity would have been easier beciase we are all used to working in groups in person. I think that after we work like this in second life more often we will get used to w orking in groups virtually as well. even though we were short on time, i feel liek the activity went smoothly, and it wasa good  first experience in working in a group in a virtual world.

Decorating my Apartment

Decorating our individual apartments was a great activity. it was a tough experience at first, but after playing arounf with it for a while, i wuickly got the hang of it. Now that everyones apartments are decorated and furnished, you can kind of get an insight into everyones personality just by walking through their condo and seeing their furniture, pictures, and other acessories. I personally really liked this activity not only becuase it was fun, but it wasa great way for us to get into second life and teach ourselves how to built and/ or edit objects. I enjoyed going to Yadni’s Junkyward and just picking up everything in sight, becuase it was all free . I acquired some vehicles, furniture, household items, clothes, and even some weapons. all for FREE.it doesnt get much better than that. Now that my apartment is finished, i definately have a better handle of second life. AT first i didnt know how to position, resize, rotate or stretch objects, but now that ive decorated my apartment, i know how to do all those things. Oh yeah, and this week, all the problems i was having with second life last week were not present this week. Second life wasnt lagging and it didnt crash either, which is a very good thing.

 Honestly, my biggest challenge was trying to get my name on the front of my condo. I tried for a long time to build a prism on the front. Once i did i had a hard time trying  to position and resize it onto the correct place. After i finally did that, i had an even harder time trying to upload my name image onto the prism that i had created. Fortunately, some of the other students from our class were on the island, and some of them helped me out and i finally was able to get the job done. I guess this is a good time to thank whoever it was who helped me with that task. I really appreciate it. The most enjoyable part for me was actually decorating the apartment. It was fun to get to decorate the condo our own personal way, and it was a great way to get to learn Second life better.

the tours we did on thursday were a great way to get to know our fellow classmates. i learned that alot of my fellow classmates had the same or similar challenge to get to UT. UT was a goal for many of us, and we all had to overcome our difficulties to get to where we wanted to be. some of us had similar obstacles, and some of us had different ones. All in all i enjoyed this activity also, it was a great way to learn about everyone, and this was my first  experience being in a virtual class. It  was a great experience.

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first week in Second Life

I am finally getting the hang of Second Life, and i am glad that i am finally off Orientation Island!! After using it all this week, i am finally feeling comfortable with most of the controls and i at least know what i am doing…. for the most part. The main thing i did this week was claim my condo on our island. It was quite a challenge getting my name to appear on the front of my condo, but after many tries, i got it. I also decorated and furnished the inside of my condo. At first i didnt have much to decorate with, but then i went to Yadni’s junkyard, and got alot of stuff. I learned how to move objects around, how to resize, and how to rotate them.

Second Life freezes alot, and that is the main problem that i have been encountering all week. It is getting really frustrating when u are in the middle of doing something, and Second Life freezes up and you have to start all over. This week, i attended a training class for new users of Second Life, but as soon as it started Second Life crashed on my computer, and then i gave up on trying to finish that class. Hopefully sometime next week when i have some time, i will try to attend another type of trainign class, maybe one where it teaches us to build things. Also, this week i bought $10 worth of Second Life money, but now for some reason it is not allowing me to buy anymore.  

When this class first started and when i first started using Second Life i honestly did not think that i was going to liek it very much. However, even though the first couple days have been rough i am starting to get into it, and find myself signing into Second Life whenever i have some free time. This week i also spent some time just travelign around Second Life seeing what elose there was out there. I teleported my avatar to some random places and just spent time talking to some of the residents there. Most of them were nice and responsive and had really good answers to the questions that i was asking them. I am not gooan say that i am an expert in using Second Life, but i can say that i have gotten better from the time that i began. Right now all i can say is that im exicted to learn more and im excited to see what else Second Life has to offer.

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