SL_Alic

toc =Teaching and Learning using Second Life= Alic Pang

Second Life Research - Pre-Survey Questions
__**Questions about you as a Learner**__ I am usually enthusiastic in class, I attempt to participate in group discussions, the best word would be energetic. I would give myself a 5, if I don't know something I would often go right into their faces and ask them questions. I don't think it is very important to have a "sense of community" in the classroom, I believe so because me as the learner needs to be able to acquire knowledge without biased opinions of the outside world, although outside opinions can help me understand the scale of debates, but subjective opinions may brainwash me (this is what I fear the most). Writing essays, recording data and processing data with excel, excel enables me to do quick calculations, draw graphs quickly etc. When I am studying for a test, it is often very tempting to use the internet or get on my phone and play games.
 * 1) Describe your classroom personality (shy, outgoing, personable, engaged, etc).**
 * 2) How effective are you at communicating with other students and teachers on a day-to-day basis (Rate yourself from 1-5 with 1 meaning you are not effective and 5 meaning you are very effective).**
 * 3) How important do you think it is for your learning to have a “sense of community” in the classroom? Please explain.**
 * 4) Are there some learning (classroom) activities where the use of technology helps you learn? If so, please explain why?**
 * 5) Are there some learning (classroom) activities where technology does not help you learn? If so, please explain why?**

__**General Questions about Technology**__ Social networking offers quick communication, emailing, online chatting all offer opportunities for people to connect with each other. Sometimes people over-rely on technology, when they come back to the real world they lose their ability to socialize like humans. The fact that people can get addicted to technology, people get addicted to games, internet etc... this is very tempting and distracting especially for students. Technology offers me quick access to information from the outside world, it also offers current events which I can usually relate to in my studies. Sometimes friends text you during the middle of a class or when you are studying, I lose focus and get dragged off topic.
 * 6) What are some ways that technology may connect people together?**
 * 7) What are some ways that technology may make people feel disconnected?**
 * 8) Is there anything that you don’t like about technology? If so, explain.**
 * 9) What role does technology play in your learning?**
 * 10) Are there any ways that technology gets in the way of your learning? If yes, provide some examples.**

__**Questions about Virtual Learning**__ Computer softwares such as word processors (microsoft word), these support our learning because it not only saves paper, it is also naturally organized and easy to browse through. We can share ideas, however technology can sometimes be a bit glitchy. no I imagine it would be difficult to do exactly what we want, such that we would have to be quick and agile on our mouse and keyboards. It creates a first impression, if you want people to look at you and think you are normal then get a proper avatar. Different avatars can symbolize different people, if everyone had the same avatar it would be difficult to recognize who is who. I think it will be, since communication comes from typing, if we type slow then its hard to follow along with conversations. Global collaboration, instead of people visiting each other, through second life people can get together fast. People can hide their identity and tell factual lies.
 * 11) What are the virtual learning tools we use in the classroom already? Describe briefly how these are used to support your learning.**
 * 12) What do you think are the advantages of using tools that allow us to connect and collaborate online? What are the disadvantages?**
 * 13) Have you had a 3D virtual world experience before? If yes, describe your experience.**
 * 14) What do you think classroom learning will be like inside a virtual world like Second Life (SL)?**
 * 15) What importance, if any, do you place in creating your own avatar?**
 * 16) What role do you think your avatar will play in how you interact with your classmates and teacher in SL?**
 * 17) Do you think learning inside SL will be challenging? If so, how?**
 * 18) What sort of classroom ITGS activities do you think will be possible inside SL?**
 * 19) How might relationships in a virtual world like SL be different from face-to-face interactions?**

=Personal Blog Entries= Tuesday May 24th: Today we were taught how to rotate our camera etc... Most of all we were taught how to create a machinima, what to do and what not to do. After we walked around and tried equipping onto the free guitar which I unfortunately failed. Still I feel second life as nothing but a game, it takes so much skill and time to simply equip a guitar, in real life it would only take seconds.

Tuesday May 17th: Today we learned how to shop, search for terms and teleport. Add things to our inventory, equipping items etc. During the process we had audio problems where we cannot hear David. After we all visited freebie island to purchase some free items. I got a new hair style, new clothing. And strangely I got a truck which I wear as piece of clothing. Weird.

Tuesday May 10th: Today we went to the island, the island was called CISS. On the island we explored through a couple of buildings, we had difficulties with communication due to the background music, however we managed to solve the issue through changing the streaming music setting. We went into a conference room and took a class photo, soon afterward we flew around the island and stopped to try out the music at some sort of instrument area, however we did not manage to learn how to play those instruments.