Second Life Discoveries: Week One

Week 1 and what I've discovered: Second Life has quite the learning curve.

Log in 1:

Well, I logged into Second Life the night before our class was supposed to work so I could get a little handle on how to move around and pick my character out.  Boy, is it different than playing the video games I'm accustomed to.  I picked the only geeky looking brunette I could find so she'd at least look somewhat like me.  While I poked around, I figured out that I could really customize my character, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to change the outfit or add more clothes to my inventory.  I'm currently wearing a skirt and jeans and it looks ridiculous.  

Log in 2: 

I decided to scrap my attempt at altering my character and went back to the original.  For some reason, I now have three different folders of the same character and I can't figure out how to delete them.  Looks like I need to spend some more time watching the tutorials and poking around.

Log in 3:  

Okay, I cannot use Second Life on my laptop.  It's just not functioning quickly enough.  I need an upgrade for my laptop, but I actually need to save up some money to get the one I want, but I digress.  I installed Second Life on my husband's gaming computer and things are working so much better now.  I can actually walk around without freezing and the clothing modification isn't being so ridiculous...though, I still cannot figure out how to add clothes to my inventory.  I finally figured out how to walk using my wasd keys, but I wish there was an easy way to change the camera angle (There probably is, but I've not found it yet).  I guess you can't jump, either.  I was kind of expecting this whole thing to be an educational version of World of Warcraft (shadow priest ftw).  I'm really worried that using this with a group of high school students may take too much time to teach them how to use.  Maybe they will be more tech savvy than me.

Log in 4:  

I feel like I can navigate in Second Life well enough now that I won't be completely lost in class.  While the tutorials were helpful, it was easier to just make mistakes in the program and learn from them.  I figured out how to save destinations and found our COE location.  I saved it to make it easier to find from now on.  I also figured out how to search for places and did a random tutorial in a learning environment that had me follow different paths and do various tasks.  This was super helpful, and I feel like I'm at least getting the hang of things.  Thank goodness for flying or it would take forever to find anything.

Class Log in:  

I am so glad that I spent time before class snooping around and figuring out how to navigate.  I felt like I could at least keep up and I was even able to put items on without a lot of trouble.  I'm excited to participate in the scavenger hunt assignment next week, and it should be very beneficial to learning how to get around this virtual world.