New friends in Second Life

Bella Yan had a great time meeting new friends in Second Life tonight!

She got to meet huxleybnw8 – who quickly got the hang of her new BMW motor bike in the UK Second Life island Sandbox – as well as LoreleiShadows.  You can see Lorelei  here in Bella’s snapshot of her drinking hot chocolate after mastering her awesome red race car.

Bella also got to meet blogginginthetardis – but we didn’t get a picture of him zooming around on his NightHawk motorbike because I was laughing too hard when he zoomed off the sandbox into the sky! He quickly recovered however and, as is the custom in Second Life, never got hurt. He’s an expert at flying anyway…

So, for these three as well as several others, Bella was able to go ahead and invite them to the class group as well as the University of Kentucky SL group.  She splurged and gave everyone $50 Linden to use for shopping sprees (though there’s much to find in freebie stores inworld!) and the notecard for when they interview others in Second Life. Bella also shared landmarks to the UK Perennial Peace Garden and to the Sandbox (where anyone can build or rez objects freely).

We’re going to have fun on Tuesday in the M.I.King Science Library computer lab! Bella has a scavenger hunt planned as well as to review some basics of how to get around inworld.

Nacirema

Download this essay by Horace Miner (from our Blackboard course – you’ll need to log in), and read it very closely.

Then click on the comment box (or reply) to this post and give your first reaction to the cultural practices of the Nacirema.

Education in Second Life showcased at Kentucky Commonwealth Commitment Summit 2013

(l-r) Second Life avatars for Christina Gazave (graduate student in UK College of Medicine), Randolph Hollingsworth (UK Division of Undergraduate Education), Matt Hazzard (UK IT), David Horrar (UofL Student Affairs)

The Kentucky Commonwealth Commitment Summit 2013 (presented by the Kentucky College and Career Readiness Initiative) showcased the work by educators, support staff and administrators at the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville in Second Life.

Christina Gazave and Matt Hazzard of the University of Kentucky came to the conference in “real life” and were joined by Dr. April Richardson-Hatcher inworld (Dr. Hatcher was at another conference in San Diego, California).  In addition, they were joined inworld by Dr. Joseph Clark (in Second Life, JS Saltwater) of Florida State University’s Distance Learning Office, Dwight Newton (in Second Life, Oriscus “Oz” Zauberflote) of UK’s School of Music, and Frederica Lexenstar, a philosopher-activist and talented SL builder.

The group held demonstrations of the many different uses of Second Life in education and research.