Postcards from the edge…
by Deirdre ~ November 27th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized.After reading about my classmates experience in SL I felt a little nostalgic and decided to head back in. It’s funny, logging in after a long time and Althea, my avatar, is just waiting for me where I left her, although there was a new basket of fruit on the table which made me wonder who else had been around….
Since I visited a lot of libraries and educational sites during my experience last year, I decided I wanted to try somewhere new. For some reason I decided on forensics and ended up in the Medical Examiner’s Office – Forensic Pathology. It was not immediately apparent who created the site, but there was a lot to look at, and lots of free stuff (always a bonus…)
Signs, signs, everywhere a sign...
They used to call the internet the information highway, or something like that, but it’s Second Life that’s scattered with billboards everywhere – it’s strange with such a powerful technology the best way to communicate is BIG SIGNS and LOTS OF THEM…
As I said, there was lots of free stuff – Tshirts, autopsy gloves and aprons in different colors, various wounds you could put on. I took it all. It was all free. However, when I put on my apron, my skirt came off! I don’t know a lot about forensics, but I don’t think this is standard procedure at all. Luckily, there was no one else there. Which is also typical of what I remember about Second Life – unless I made previous arrangements, I was always flying solo.
Even Tim Horton’s was deserted… and you know this never happens in real life, no matter what time of day.
So, it sounds like I’m making fun of Second Life. And I am. Because it’s goofy.
But I do think it’s early days, and even at this stage there is value in immersive worlds. There is no denying they are extremely engaging. Just visiting the medical examiner’s office, Tim Horton’s, an art gallery and a monastery I was gone for over an hour and it seemed like minutes. Bringing that engagement to learning will be valuable. Information professionals have a ‘role to play’ (pardon the pun) – knowing how to navigate these worlds and find the resources within them.
November 28th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
A whimsical terrific blogpost, Deirdre.
You’ve learned so much in LIBR559M. I’m impressed with your contributions, I really am.
Dean
November 29th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I thought that the reason that SL seemed so abandoned was because I was going on at 3 or 4 am most of the time… Means that most of the people that I’ve run into have been from other countries around the world (really given me an opportunity to practice my French!). But even when I googled the most popular places to visit in SL, most of these seemed to be ghost towns. It’s interesting to hear that this is what it’s like most of the time now.
I haven’t been able to actively engage with others the same way I was able to on my original starting point of Help Island, and now that I’ve left it, I’m not allowed to go back 🙁 There are publicly accessible Help Islands, but they’re not the same.
I had a similar nudity scare when I was first trying to figure out how the clothing thing worked – I was in public though on Help Island when it happened though. I reset my clothing, and for a very brief and panicky time, I was naked and couldn’t figure out how to add new clothes to my body. This was really scary, because at the time we were still going to be doing our classroom presentations in SL… I thought that my avatar would be naked for the presentation and that I would have to discuss the project in the buff. Got it worked out now though, even to the point where I’ve found baskets of adornments for newbies and have added sunglasses, a coffee mug and a leather jacket to my avatar.