Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Site name: C.F. University
Location address: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/BOOMER%20ISLAND/95/144/27
This week I still participated in the activities in Virtlantis which I have been exploring since the first week (if you are interested, you could check my former blog about it). I assisted to teach Chinese last Friday. It was my first time being a teaching assistant in Second Life. It was a very interesting experience in teaching Chinese to people from different countries.
In the following I would like to talk about my exploration in C.F. University on Second Life. The teleport link is http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/BOOMER%20ISLAND/95/144/27. Comparing to Virtlantis, the environment in C.F. University is more like a campus. Virtlantis consists of many natural and casual places where we could study. C.F. University has many school buildings which we could see in real life. After I teleported to C.F. University, I can’t help moving and seeing around.
The first thing that attracted me was the carousel. I sit on the horse and click the top of the carousel, then it swirled! How amazing! I didn’t play with this for a long time and it was a surprise to experience it in Second Life. I also found a swing, which made me very happy.
After playing with the carousel for some time, I decided I can’t be too playful, so I stood up and looked around. I saw a green ball and two purple and yellow balls in frond of me. I clicked the green ball and found that could make me dance. I could choose different kinds of dance style. I chose one and danced for a little while.
Afterwards I went to the Bowman Art Institute and Museum. There are some art works outside the building. I went into the building and saw many pictures and an information board about the artists. By clicking the board, some webpages could be open and we could learn more about the artists and their works.
Under the direction of the gift shop, I went forward and saw a campus freebie shop. There were many things for free. I clicked and got some of them.
There is also a ballroom. Following the direction, I went to the second floor of the building where the ballroom is. It is gorgeous. Someday we may gather there and have a party with our friends.
Leaving the ballroom, I wandered and saw a place offering food. I went there and got a cherry cheese cake. In Der Rathskeller, I got some drinks. My avator felt very satisfied after having the cake and drinks.
Afterwards I walked around and found a computer on the table. I clicked it and found I could write and read emails there. I could also have an email address. That’s amazing.
I also found the peg game in a room. I once played it with my friends. I didn’t expect that I could even the game in Second Life. By clicking it, I got a notecard which told me the instructions
In C.F. University, there are many class schedules boards. We could see all the class information. The classes will teach Second Life skills. I participated a building class for beginners this morning. However, I didn’t catch up with it. The instructions were rolling quickly in the nearby chat area and there was no voice instruction. I didn’t understand some of the concepts, so I was stuck then fell behind and didn’t know how to build. It was still a good experience though. It was the first class about how to build in Second Life. I still need to learn more about Second Life.
After the stressful class, I flew to another building where there were some coach. I lay down and had a good rest. After a while, I went into the building and found some sofa and computers. I sit down and played with the computer. To my surprise, I saw some websites and links which I could get a lot of information when I clicked the screen.
That is my experience in C.F. University. I could feel campus atmosphere in this location. During my journey in C.F. University, I had some similar experience which were similar to real life experience. Second Life does have many affordances for education, however, sometimes I feel it is more difficult for students to follow the teacher in Second Life than studying in real world. Students are also easy to be distracted while taking the class. If some measures could be designed and adopted to make students be concentrated and follow the teacher, the study in Second Life will be more efficient and effective.
