This week (through Saturday) I continued attending free workshops in Second Life. I attended the following:
- NCI’s Prim Skirt Class, and I made a skirt. I was more interested in learning how to build, and I learned terms such as flex prim, root prim, etc.
- Building Basics Class where I continued to learn about building, rezzing, etc.
- Building for Beginners just another variation of building.
- Animation Override Class where I was unsuccessful in creating my overrides. I may need to attend this class again.
- ASTD Member’s Discussion on the ASTD Island. I entered into a discussion with other ASTD members about Second Life. I learned quite a bit about organizations that have a virtual presence in SL, and some of the members are involved in training. I can see that in OAD260, this could be a great site for the training and orientation topics.
- Interactive Role Playing, and in this class I learned about three types in SL: Interactive, Narrative, Expressive. We discussed the importance of gestures and learned how to create gestures. This information was very valuable. We did not actually role play.
- NCI Skills Starting a Business in SL, and I didn't find this class as valuable as I thought I would. More discussion was on the properties of items you might sell. To start a busines in SL, you need to do the same things you would do in RL: need a business plan. I did learn about www.gimp.org and www.paint.net as alternative free programs for Photoshop.
- GQ Communications in SL. This class was excellent because we talked about the various communiation tools: text chat, IM, voice chat and all the associated settings for these. Our instructor said we should use the name of the person we are talking to--especially in a crowd. IM is used for "out of character" communication and it is limited to 1023 characters. Plus, only 100 offine IMs can be recorded. IM is good to us when AVs are outside of the immediate area. Also, she mentioned the importance of reading any notecards for items because these notecards tell us how to communicate with the item.
Some of these classes move very, very quickly, and they use text chat so you are reading quickly and trying to open windows and do the activities at the same time. I consider myself to be a “quick” learner, but sometimes I find them challenging. At least with text chat, there is a written log for reference.
I really like attending the classes because the instructors do give notecards, objects, etc. that we can use later. Sometimes they are just freebies. In return, I tip these instructors in Linden Dollars. Oftentimes, there is a tip jar “appreciated but not necessary.” I also like attending them because I learn other things. I’m gradually learning the shortcut language for text chat such as afk, ty, np, tp, lmd. I do have difficulty using these instead of writing out the entire word since I am an old “English” major. When I don't know what they are saying, I ask!
Plus, I meet new AVs, and we become "friends." These people can become valuable resources. That means we can contact one another in SL. I met Parrot, a virtual entrepreneur, who talked with me about how she is looking for SL interns in web design and marketing. We talked about how I might investigate opportunities for students in SL as interns. The only problem is these would be “non-paid” positions. She suggested I begin contacting the CEO’s at the SL organizations such as IBM, Manpower, Sun Microsystems, Circuit City, etc. So I believe I will investigate these.
