First Experience in 2nd Life

My first experience was a fun one. The first thing I liked about it is that it had an avatar that I felt represented me right off the bat. I guess, I am kind of generic that way. No tweeking necessary. Whereas in JokaydiaGrid, I feel like I really had to spend some time trying to get my avatar to remotely match my personality and I am still not totally satisfied.

The second thing I noticed is the automaticity I was feeling as soon as I logged in to Second Life. Thanks to the time spent in JokaydiaGrid, learning how to navigate Second life has not felt like a chore or been burdened with a learning curve as I was able to skip past all the tutorial stuff and just jump right in.

Literally, as you will see, I chose to check out one of the proposed destinations by our instructors, Expedition Central and started jumping on the trampoline.

This destination was totally cool as it had myriad of other destinations embedded in this one location. All you have to do is click on the desired localation and add it as a landmark then you are free to teleport. It also contains so many cool looking subjects, like a deep sea diving module and a tour of Machu Pichu and many other awesome adventures. I really get the sense of virtual traveling from visiting this location. The one thing that was a little disappointing is that I do not see any destinations that target specifically English content curriculum. I am sure I can use some of these existing destinations to supplement English content but there is no "HS English Literature Haven" that I have been searching for. Part of it is frustrating because I want to find a wealth of teaching resources that I can just pillage and use for myself and some of it is inspiring because maybe there is a niche I can fill and create one.  

Here is a sample of some of the places to visit

The last thing I want to touch upon is the ideas we have been discussing in the forum regarding Virtual Ability Inc. and people being able to do things in-world that they may not do in real life. I am not intending to make lite of the situation, but here I am dancing some club dance in Second Life and this is something that I would never do in real life. I could not help but laugh as it was happening and feel a little joy and vicarious pleasure. My point is that Virtual Ability can serve many purposes. I am as stiff as a board and would never dance in public (or private for that matter) and here, in a virtual world, I am able to do so with out fear of judgement or criticism. So maybe Virtual Ability can be thought of as more than just disability but for making people able to do things they normally would not or could not do in real life.