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Location: Still on the virtual road...mining the class wiki
Student responses to a more guided experience in-world, continued...It was a fun semester. Time to send out a special thanks to the class mentors, especially Tenchi, Di, and Cynthia. She’s at the right of the image here, with me and a group of students from this year’s Conference on College Composition and Communication in New Orleans.
Thanks to Pappy Enoch for not getting any kids injured, jailed, or married to one of your cousins.
Reaction #2: Initially skeptical students let go and begin exploring:
I got curious one day in Second Life® and decided to do some searches. For some reason the first thing that popped into my head when I brought up the search menu was hell. . . . .Hell is a very interesting place. . . . a rather picturesque plot of fire and brimstone that is home to many Second Life citizens. One of the first things I found when I arrived at the train station in hell is that you can rent land there. Why suffer in eternal damnation when you can build a house on a burning plain?
Reaction #3: Awe blossoms in the metaverse:
Second Life has proved to be something of an enigma to me. I believe it was Tenchi [Morigi, a class mentor] who corrected me for calling SL™ a game. Now that I’ve spent probably 10+ hours in-world, I’m seeing that she could not be more right. SL is indeed NOT a game. Quite frankly, it is something that seems to defy definition. Many say that it is an experience. But to me, even calling SL an experience fails to capture its scope. If I were to define it, I would call it a simulation of what would happen if men were gods.
Reaction #4: Negative reactions tend to be more considered, as in this student’s reaction of visiting the Africa sim:
It was a cute experience, but I am aware that it is not even close to resembling the real continent of Africa, nor will it prepare me for my hopefully upcoming journey. However, these photos all represent some stereotype of the Dark Continent - all exotic, all unique, and all very “African.”
Or this student’s realization of how little doing online surveys in-world pays:
5 minutes and $26 lindens latter I realize that earning money this way is not for me.
Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land®” Archive for old posts
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