Talk about a steep learning curve! My first day of Second Life (5 hours!) was spent downloading, creating my avatar, trying to figure out why I had two sets of hair on my head, learning to walk without walking through walls, learning to chat, learning to teleport, and trying to be just the right amount of friendly without giving the wrong impression. I was VERY uncomfortable with the degree of eroticism all around and I sincerely hope that the teen area is less overt. I did find some amazingly helpful people and a Tolkien exhibit at Imagination Island. That's a pic of my avatar looking at hobbit holes. I could even check out a children's book which appealed to me as a librarian. It's in my inventory now.
My second day (another 5 hours!), I explored Info Island (very quiet place to try things without an audience and with reference librarian on duty to help), Ivory Tower of Prims (great tutorials on how to build which I will try out later, too many annoying people at the sandbox there), and ISTE Island (where I learned about many educational groups). I joined a virtual group (ISTE, since I'm already a RL member) and made note of its coming SL events, socials and speakers. The RL conference is in session this week, but I couldn't find a way to follow it virtually in SL. There will be a speaker on July 7th I intend to go back to hear. From an avatar standpoint, I have started to beef up my profile since I was told by several that it was very sparse. I added interests, slurl's for the places I'd been, and Married with Children for personal. That seemed to help.
My third day I visited a tornado generator on Tornado Island(fabulous, but I couldn't find quite the right way to get sucked up into the tornado which is possible), The Great Wall of China (amazing), The Alamo (pretty good), The Statue of Liberty (just so-so), and The Empire State Building (couldn't get inside). You really need a guide to SL places who know the ins and outs. I saw some tourist agencies but don't want to pay yet. I also visited my first freebie place, very sleazy, with rude people, lots of shoving. I need to find a better one if I'm going to stay because I want to find some animations to help me move better and look more natural, or smile or something.
In terms of educational use, I am an elementary teacher-librarian. To be frank, I probably won't use it in my library. Youtube has some videos of sl places and events that might be better than actually going there with students. You just don't know who will be there. Plus the lag time would make it difficult to keep interest in younger students. I found myself having to be very patient with uploading time. I think the only place I visited that my students and I would have enjoyed seeing together was the Tornado and that's already on youtube. There is probably more value for students 13 years and up for learning in a peer environment.
From a professional education standpoint, I think I will enjoy my speaker next week and look forward to seeing if chat is allowed (or backchanneling backchat) or not. I think virtual conferencing is much cheaper than going there. Plus I would like to explore other areas, like Rome or Egypt, marine or space environments, and just chat with other educators, so I will be going back.
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