John Kain Comes to Class

John Kain is my counterpart at the district. We used to be in Instructional Technology together along with colleague Linda Cooper. IT no longer exists, Linda gets to sleep late and do what she wants, but John is in the Professional Development Dept. while I am now attached to General Studies. Today John went to Lowell and interviewed two of the students during their advanced computer class. Classroom teacher/Media Specialist Ginger Baron was in the classroom but I was sitting at my desk at the district office with two computers logged in to do some Screenr videos. (See video below)

Screencasts from Today's Work

My most sincere thanks to Chris Smith (aka Shambles Guru in Second Life). Chris told us about a screencasting tool called Screenr last night at ISTE and I love it! This is the power of networking via Second Life because Chris lives in Thailand! I would never be able to meet him or many of the others who are now part of my learning community because of time, distance, or cost, but Second Life makes it possible! (In 2016, Screenr was no longer available but we could at least download projects from previous years) (See videos below)

Meet the Class

Students were required to write a blog entry this week telling what they have been learning in Second Life. I know it's a lot of text in one entry but I really didn't want to break it up because it reflects where the whole class is at this point in our work. For these beginner activities I awarded Linden based on word count divided by 10 and also awarded Linden for building the living rooms based on prim count.

Hi my name is Diana G, I am thirteen years old, and I am in the eighth grade. I am not that really into sports except in baseball and football. When I am bored I like to hear music and read. I also like to watch TV. I have learned so much in these classes that I have had with Ms. Baron and Ms. Strehlow in Second Life. For example I now know how to build any kind of furniture in Second Life such as sofas, tables, houses, and also other furniture. Once I accidently built my sofa into the ground. I also learned how to take pictures of my work while I am doing it. In Second Life we got to communicate with our friends and, not just talking about anything we had to talk about what we learned in class and how we did in class. Doing this got me Linden or money for my character in Second Life. I used this money to buy textures for my furniture. What was pretty cool is that I got to share my textures with my friends. I got all my furniture textures at the Lowell Depot. There was a lot to choose from. Another way I earned Linden was answering questions that Ms. Strehlow asked, and when I shared my opinion with her and with others. In Second Life we were able to fly, walk around, and also run. I think that was weird but cool. This would help me in my job or to get a job because if I wanted to become a construction worker or an architect that would build houses, tables, and other kind of furniture I would know how to build any kinds of things in a computer and they would be my models. This class was very helpful and very exciting.

Hi, I am Myron and I control the avatar Myron Mistwalker in Second Life. In real life, I attend Lowell Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona. I enjoy some sports. My favorite football team is the New England Patriots. I also enjoy reading a little bit and playing outside on the weekends. I used to want to be an architect when I grow up, but now I would like to be an oncologist. If I were to change my mind in the near future back to becoming an architect, then Second Life would give me some skills that I could take with me to that career choice. So far in Second Life I have learned how to use different geometric shapes to create different objects. I have learned how to do some interior design. I know how to match up colors. I know how to shape things on a computer, in a three dimensional environment. This year Second life has been different. There are more kids in the class, and we have to write blogs on our PESD island accounts on ning.com. I don’t enjoy writing these blogs because I don’t like writing and I want to spend more time in Second Life. I must write these blogs though, because people want to know what exactly we are doing in Second Life, and what we are learning from this program. Second Life is not a game. It is a very advanced program and it should be treated as such. It has taught me many things. Using Second Life I personally have learned to be more responsible. I have deadlines that I have to meet. I need to know how to spend my money wisely. When I get older I will need these skills in real life when I am in school. I will need to know how to reach deadlines and I will need to know how to spend my money wisely.

Hi, I’m Nick. I have an avatar named “Nik Neximus.” An avatar is the player/character in Second Life. We have this assignment that we are working on right now, which is a “floor plan.” This floor plan is literally a floor plan. This is different from all other assignments I had before because you have to build a kitchen in the kitchen. The floor plan says to build a table and four chairs and we had to build a stove and sink. In the living room we have to build two chairs and one big sofa and a table in the middle. I also put a plasma screen TV in the wall and had a big window on the side of the living room. In the bathroom I had to build a tub and toilet and a sink too. It’s a lot of fun, because it’s like creating your dream home. You can make it look like you want it to look. I had to learn how to use measurements and learn how to build beds, walls, floor, and a roof to scale. You start out with a simple 3-D shape like a cube, sphere, or pyramid and shape it to look like the wanted form. You can also gain money know as Linden by working and doing what you are suppose to. You can also lose Linden if you mess around and you are not in task. You can give money to other players or buy supplies that would help you in assignments you are doing. You can share some of the supplies with other people some other ones you can’t.

Hi. My name is Jesus R. and I’m in Second Life. My avatar name is Jesus Runner. What I have learned in Second Life is how to create objects and how we need to have the same length or it doesn’t come out the same size. This makes me think like people that work making things like tables and other objects. In the world it takes money to move forward in your life and in Second Life it’s helping me know how people spend their money. In life we have to work to get money and that’s what we are doing in Second Life. Everyday we have an assignment. Every time we come to the library we have to finish and by the end of the day get Linden. I think Second Life is trying to have us think what we do with our money. I am building a little table and a couch and made a floor. I spend my money on carpet and on fabric. 

Hi, I’m Omar G. I have an avatar and my name is “Ohmar Orsini.” I have learned how to make lots of cool new items, for example I know how to build a bed, TV, drawers, counters, speakers, and I’ve learned how to make stuff hollow. I also learned how to communicate with my peers better than I used to. I built a speaker and I used a cube and made it hollow and then I got and other cube and made it to the right measurements and then I put it in side the hollow cube and I made a speaker. I got the supplies because I bought them from the Lowell Depot. The Lowell Depot is a store where you can buy lots of great textures, woods, windows, and much more. Most of the materials that you can buy cost 10 Linden. The materials you buy in the Lowell Depot are for your building uses, so when you make a wall you can change the texture into a better look. Yes, you can share items with other players or you can sell it to them. You report your work on Ning.com. The Ning is just like Twitter or MySpace because you get to talk to other people that have avatars. You also get to upload photos that you took while you play Second Life. You can upload your own pictures but they need to be appropriate. Adding people is quite simple. You just need to look for them and then send them a friend request or they can send you one. You design your own page but you really don’t get any points when you fix your page up. You communicate by typing on the “typing bar” on Second Life.

Hi. My name is Francisko Madrigal. I learned how to use Second Life and learned how to share objects with people. I am learning how to build a house with my partners. This program can help me learn about architecture. I learned how to communicate with other people. I got my supplies by buying them at Lowell Depot. Lowell is a place where you could buy things for your house like windows, carpets and doors. I share materials with my partners and most of my classmates. I report my work by taking pictures or talking to Ms. Strehlow. I communicate by chat messages and instant messages. When I barely came in I was confused and didn’t know what to do and I was behind on my work. Then I got help from Ms. Strehlow and that’s how I know how to build things like sofas , tables, walls and windows. 

Hello, my name is Salvador Badger, I am an 8th grader at Lowell. I like rap music including Tupac Shakur as well as classic rock bands like the Beatles. The sports I like are basketball, football, baseball and soccer. I enjoy watching Sportcenter and other sports shows and games on television. In Second Life I have learned how to make furniture as well as a room and I am learning how to build many different objects using nothing but regular three dimensional shapes. This could help me in the real world because I now have an idea on how houses and furniture as well as other objects are really built. What I have learned in Second Life may definitely help me if I become a sculptor or a building designer as in Second Life we built a room, couch, chair, table, floor, rug, wall and lamp. In Second Life to get money which is called Linden, you have to do what is assigned to you which a lot of the time was building so you have to work for your Linden like you have to work for your money in the real world. I got my supplies by simply clicking where it says build and using the 3D shapes but you can also buy your supplies at the Lowell Depot which sells supplies. You report your work by taking pictures of what you built and sending it to your teacher by e-mail as we sent our work through epals. Last but not least you communicate by talking through a headsets’ microphone or send someone an instant message using the chat bar.

My name is Alexis Adored and I am an eighth grader at Lowell School. I like to play videogames, listen to music and play basketball. What I have learned through Second Life is how to construct and create buildings and houses. I have built a house by using geometric shapes and putting them together to make them look like I want them to look. These experiences will help me in life because I am learning techniques to become an architect and interior designer. Every few days Ms. Strehlow gives us an assignment and if we complete it she gives us Linden dollars. If you don’t you don’t get paid. You can use Linden to buy clothing and buy building materials. We can share materials with friends. We report our work by taking pictures of our work while we are working. We communicate by sending instant messages. 

I’m Teddy Canucci from the Second Life program. I am in the eighth grade at Lowell School. What I have learned and what I am going to learn in the Second Life program was how to make a living room. This living room contains a couch, a chair, a carpet, a floor and a wall. We also learned how to make exact width, length, and height measurements. In the program we have an assignment that we have to do or make to get paid money that will let us, the workers, be able to buy carpeting and wood textures at the Lowell Depot where we buy different textures to place on our creations and to use for our future projects. After we have completed our project we take snapshots of it in order to show our work, our progress, and to get some Linden money. What I am learning right now is how to create a house using a floor plan to guide me and my workmates to build a house fit for four people. From basic shapes such as spheres and cubes we widen and flatten them to form the shape of an object we are building. To communicate to my workmates we have to type out what we want to say. This is not easy. You have to be exact with what you say or they might misunderstand. You can share your materials by giving some to someone. You can also sell objects and materials too. Then we add textures to them to create a room or an object to make it look like it can be a real man made object. This can help me prepare for the future to be able to build at exact measurements without making too many mistakes. If I was building a house for example, it will allow me to visualize what a plan would look like and be able to put everything in its place without making guesses. If I work for a company that builds houses I already have prior knowledge to use to make the house or object and some people do not have the knowledge that I have now so I might be able to use it when I get older and I am looking for work to do to get money. Some of the people that are using the Second Life program are in college or high school and I already know this, not as a master, but I have learned quite a bit of information to take from this. 

Hello my name is Junior Jupiter. In Second Life, I have learned many things. I have learned how to build things out of 3D prims which are basic shapes. Since the last time that I wrote, I have learned how to work as a team with my partner in building a house. Sometimes, I buy building supplies, but other times my partner buys them. We are working as a team to build a house. He is building part of the house and I am building another. This would help me in the real world if I wanted to be an architect. This program is very much like real life in a way that there are real objects with actual sizes. I learned how to put prims to fit together without overlapping so that the finished product looks good and fits together properly. I earn money by recording my work by taking snapshots. With the money I could buy whatever it is that I want to buy, whether it be clothing or building supplies. In Second Life, I have built walls, a couch, a bed, a coffee table, and two seats. I built the couch from cubes, semi circles, and semi cylinders. I built the bed from cubes and a semi cylinder. The walls are cubes that have been flattened, hollowed, and stretched out. I bought all my supplies from a store called the Lowell Depot. It is a hardware store on an island in Second Life. In order to get Linden, I have to take snapshots or pictures and send them to my email address. I spend my money by buying supplies. There is no other way that I can spend my money in something that is useful. I share materials with my partner so that we can build the house with same textures so we don’t spend double the money for the same thing. I report my work by sending the snapshots to my email address and Ms. Strehlow checks them. Ms. Strehlow is our Second Life teacher. In Second Life, I communicate by instant messaging other people.

Hello my name is Christian Viper. I like to play football, soccer, and basketball. My goal is to play high school football. Here in advanced computers I have learned how to make beds, couches, houses, tables, and walls from scratch in Second Life. We were taught how it feels to be an architect creating a building and to read floor plans. Ms. Strehlow and Mrs. Baron have taught me how to use Gimp to make a name or word look cool and make it look all glittery. We have started to build a scale model with the floor plans laid out. We have learned to put texture on the objects we build. In Second Life I learned that you can change how you look, from your hair to your shoes you can change just about anything. When we take snapshots of what we are building we get Linden. Linden is money in Second Life. In Second Life you can fly into the sky and call your friends if you and they have a headset on with a microphone. You can go to the Lowell Depot and buy wood textures, glass textures, carpet textures and regular textures. We each have an email account on a website called epals.com. We are also on ning.com where we can post comments and send messages to each other. In Second Life Ms. Strehlow is the head of our Second Life Island and can get in with us any time. When we barely started we started out building a living room set. We built it with a plain cube to start with and we started shaping it into what we wanted. We clicked on a tab on the bottom of the screen that said build and we picked the cube shape or the others that are there. We earn Linden by taking snapshots of what we make. We spend Linden by buying supplies and buying stuff from other people. Yes you may share stuff because sometimes you need what other people don’t. You report your work by sending progress of what you are doing to your epals.com email. We communicate by clicking on the communicate tabs at the bottom of the screen. 

I want to introduce myself. My name is Denise R, and I’m in Mrs. Kellerman’s home room. She is a very nice teacher to me and so are Mrs. Baron and Ms. Strehlow because they all help me with what I need help with and when I’m in trouble or in danger. I love playing volleyball, basketball. I’m a nice person if you would like to be my friend then you can. In advanced class I have been learning about making furniture and just building things like some people do. I have also learned in Second Life that you can earn Linden money for making the furniture. I have learned that in this activity you can make good friends by communicating and chatting to them and just being nice to them. You can learn how to make furniture in the future by practicing this activity. It also helps you because when you buy furniture for your house you will have to know where to put your furniture and how it will be organized in your very own place. I have learned in this activity that you can have your very own freedom by building furniture, communicating, and just exploring. When you are on this activity you have to take pictures and send them to Ms. Strehlow. This activity also helps me because when you do 3-D shapes you would have to make the shape even on all the sides. If you want to get Linden then you would have to make more furniture and you would have to be careful of what you do in order to get it. One way you can spend your Linden is you can go to Lowell Depot and buy fabrics and stuff. The materials you need for this activity is the size, shape, color, fabric and many other things in order to make your furniture and earn Linden. Last but not least I enjoy being in this activity because it kind of gives me a fresh start because as I get older and get my own place I will already know what to do because of this Second Life activity. I’m going to say this out of my very own words, I think that this will be great for anybody because it will help them in things they don’t even know about yet but they will know in the future, when people go to their house they will be amazed and like wow how did you learn how to make furniture and fabrics, the person that owns the house will probably say I learned how to make furniture and fabrics by practicing on this Second Life activity. And then the other person will be jealous and would want to copy or just does a little like the other person. 

Hello. My name is Jonathan Frostbite and in the real world I like to play video games, play sports like basketball, baseball and football. I also like listening to music from famous artists like Linkin Park, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Michael Jackson and L’il Wayne. In Second Life I have learned how to build homes and furniture for me and other people. In the real world this could help me by learning how to build homes, make furniture and how to put different textures on chairs, couches, and beds. In the Second Life program I built a wall with a seashell texture and I bought a window at a store like place called Lowell Depot were you could buy different textures, windows, rugs for your floor, bed, chairs, and couches. I built the chairs, walls, and a bed for me by clicking a 3-D object like a square, rectangle, sphere and a pyramid. We communicate by talking into our headset with a microphone or we could send them an instant message just like MySpace, Twitter, and Face book. In real life my important goal is to finish school, high school, and college to get a degree in dentistry so I could be a professional dentist.



Hello, my name is Damian Ashmoot and I am a user in Second Life. I like to play football and my favorite football team is the Jacksonville Jaguars. I want to play quarter back. My favorite football player is Brett Favre. I like to watch movies. I am a big fan of action and comedy movies. I like some animated movies. My favorite movie is Super Bad. I like to listen to rock. I listen to most types of rock. In advanced computers we have learned how to build things in Second Life .We also learned some computers skills in Second Life. I learned how to make couches, walls and chairs. We make these objects by clicking build and putting it in the size we want it to be. We also learned how to color and put textures on the objects we create. We learned how to use Gimp. In Gimp we wrote our name and made it a different color. We added glitter in the middle of the letter. We also put shine on our name. We got our customized name on our shirts in Second Life. In Second Life we can buy equipment by getting Linden. We get Linden by taking pictures or posting comments or information on Epals. When we get Linden we can go to the Lowell Depot and buy carpet, glass, wood, and tiles. Once we buy equipment we can share with a friend. They can give you something then you can give them something. So far I have shared with Claudio and Teddy. We also can chat with friends. We can talk in private or in public.

Hi. My name is Claudio Lamplight. I have learned how to share a place with some of my friends and their names are Francisko Madrigal and Jesus Panache. I have learned how to share my material like fabric, window, and carpet texture and create things like a sofa, chair and the walls. This can probably be a good source for helping me to be an architect. I can probably build stuff for kids and make some type of gym equipment and things like that. I have also learned how to communicate with other people by using instant messaging. It lets me contact my friends easier. Second Life has changed my relationship with my friends and I have made new friends. In order for us to buy material we need to get Linden and that’s like money. We get it buy working on stuff and getting photos taken and sending them to the Ning. I think each picture is worth about ten Linden and we buy our stuff at Lowell Depot. 

Hello. My name is Mikael Gearz and here in advanced computers I have learned in Second Life to make couches and matching chairs to go along with it. I also learned to earn money called Linden, and to take pictures and send them to our teachers so they can look at them. We have received email accounts for us to use. Now we are building houses that we have to make the furniture that goes with the design on the floor and make it 3-D. We can chat on Second Life and we can fly. We can change our clothes and hair. With the Linden money we can buy carpets and more. They have a Lowell Depot for that type of substance. We have shirts that say our name on them. We had to design them and then the teacher would put our names on the shirt. Second like is not a game but it has game similarities like the graphics and how we can fly and change our hair and clothes. When we build things we can zoom in to get a better look at what were building so we can build it just right.

Hi, my name is Evert Moonwall. I attend Lowell School in Phoenix, Arizona. There are lots of things that I have learned in Second Life. I have learned how to make my avatar. An avatar is a person in which you create many things by your skill and talents. I have also learned how to create things and share them in Second Life. I’m learning how to make a little house. By learning how to build things and how to focus better on my constructing skills, Second Life can really help me on my future. There are many techniques that can be learned in Second Life. Every time that I get in Second Life we always get an assignment that is required by the instructor. And when we complete the assignment and we do what is followed we get something called “Linden.” Linden is something like money. Linden can be used to buy things or use it for any use. We recently had an assignment in which we had to build sort of a house. We are in groups of three trying to build a house. I’m still not finished with my assignment but when I’m done I hope that Ms.Strehlow would be happy with what we have worked on. Sometimes we have to take pictures and we have to send it to our Ning. Everybody has a Ning that has been giving to us. In our Ning we have to check it because we sometimes get messages that we have to respond back to the instructor. Second Life has really been a great thing. You learn many things that you wouldn’t expect in Second Life. It has really helped me in many ways. 

Hi! My name is Aymee Verwood and I’m a student in the state of Arizona. In real life I enjoy playing volleyball and listening to music. The music that I like is mostly pop or R&B. An important goal that I have in my real life is that I want to be a journalist, maybe on the Arizona Republic. What I have learned in Second Life is a lot of helpful and wonderful things that will help me in the future. Maybe I will use this program in high school or in my job and I will already know the program. I have learned how to build and create my own furniture, making sure they are all equal size in length and also in width. The objects also have to be linked together and how you do that is by clicking on one of them and pushing the shift key and then pressing the ctrl key plus the L and they will all be linked together! Linking will help you by making sure that the objects all have the same type of texture and this will make it look nice. Another thing that I learned is how to take a snapshot, and by taking a snapshot that will earn you more Lindens. Linden is a type of money that we use in Second Life.

My name is Karla Panache. I’m a student in Phoenix, Arizona. I enjoy listening to music. I listen to everything but mostly R&B and pop. I like watching movies, especially scary movies. My goals in life are to finish school and to get a good job. I really want to be a crime scene investigator. What I have learned in advanced computers that will help me in the real world is how to build furniture in Second Life. By learning how to build my own furniture I now know what it would be like to be a designer, for example you would want to know what size you want your furniture, and what shape. You also have to make sure that the pieces are all lined up together. I learned how to link all the pieces of the furniture, so the pieces are all together when you want to move them. We use Linden. Linden is like money, only we use it in Second Life. You have to complete your tasks in order to get Linden. You can spend your Linden on things you need to finish your living room space. You communicate by just chatting on Second Life. These are all the things I’ve learned in advanced computers. 

My name is Rocio Mendle. I’ve been working in this class for the first trimester. The thing I most like in life is sports except football. The goal I have now is to finish my schooling. In Advanced Computers I have learned to build things in Second Life that can relate to the real world in becoming an architect. In Second Life I became an architect even though I don’t want to be one when I grow up. I really want to be a cosmetologist when I grow up. In Second Life I built a sofa, a chair to go with the sofa, even pillows for the two sofas plus a rug, floor, and wall. I’ve built all kind of things there. I almost built a whole room. How did I build it? There was this button that said build and I clicked on it. You can choose any shape you want your sofa to be. So I clicked on a cube. I stretched it out and rotated it till I got it the way I wanted it to look. Then I did the same to the other parts of the sofa. Then I went on like that to the rest of the furniture. After I was finished, I would take a snapshot of what I built and send it to my epals account. When you build stuff you will get Linden which is money for what you build. If you want to spend your money on texture or buy anything else for your furniture you just go to Lowell Depot and select the box of textures you want. Select buy and the program will automatically send it to you. If you want to share your texture you just click on the texture he/she wants then drag it to that person and then he/she will have it saved to their inventory. In Second Life we can communicate with each other, have fun, and be friends with each other. Being in the class is so much fun even though things are challenging for us. 

My avatar name in Second Life is Nestor Jestyr. I am an 8th grader who currently attends at Lowell School. My favorite music is rock or hardcore, and screamo. The sport of my life is soccer. I hope to get into law or business in my future. I have learned on Second Life how to type better and much faster. On Second Life I had no idea how to make anything, but now I have learned how to make realistic items out of shapes such as cubes into sofas, beds, walls and other realistic items. I have built floors, rug, carpet and coffee tables. I have built it with the shapes given in the program such as cubes, spheres, or cylinders and much more. The way to get my Linden is to post blogs on how I am doing on Second Life and taking “snapshots” or pictures while I work. I spend the Linden on items our teacher/instructor builds or supplies for us to make our work a bit easier. We could and can share our materials. We report our work by going on Ning.com and blogging about our work. We communicate by typing on the computer and onto the “typing part” of the Second Life program. I’m now learning how to be creative instead of having the same fabrics for the same old sofa textures. This could help me in the real world by knowing how to use the computer. It can help me by typing faster, and making advanced files. It can also help me by knowing how to use programs that will help me if I get into business, insurance, law, etc. In Second Life I have an assignment to build a house. My partners and I have to build walls, doors, sofas, beds, and other real life needs to live in a house. My partners and I just started and are getting along pretty good.

Hello my name is Gerardo C. In Second Life my avatar name is Gerardo Capelo. In real life I like to play football, basketball, and soccer. I’m 13 years old and I go to Lowell School. I learned in Second Life how to make furniture out of shapes. This will help me in the future most in constructing things in the real world. If I get a job building I will need to make it out of simple shapes like squares, rectangles, ovals, and spheres. In Second Life I have built a furniture showroom. I built it out of squares and rectangles. I had to get the supplies at the Lowell Depot. Each box of supplies cost 10L. To get Linden you need to take pictures of your work. We communicate by instant messaging. I spent my Linden on my carpet, floor tile, and glass textures. I shared my supplies with my partners Christian and Nestor. I report my work by taking pictures and sending them to my Epals account. Epals is a little like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. We email our friends on Epals. Our first assignment was to do our name in Gimp. When we finish making our shirt we put them on our avatar. An avatar is a player that you are.

Hello my name is Jesus Panache. I like to play video games. My goal for me when I grow up is to be a lawyer and once I’m a lawyer I want to be a judge. What I have learned is multiple skills in Second Life. Some of the skills that I have learned are the ability to move the computer around. I now can use the computer and be able to manipulate the tabs at the bottom of the screen. I have an account on the Ning on the web so it has helped my web skills it has helped my web skills because it is like MySpace. This could help me in the real world because some of these skills could help me be an architect because of all the constructing that I have done in this class. Every class I have a different assignment so it’s a class with grades and everything. In this class you get Linden by doing your work or your assignment. Ms. Strehlow is our guest teacher and she is the one that determines how much Linden we get for the type of work we do. Linden is what we call money in Second Life. We spend our Linden on textures that we use on the objects that we build. We report our work by sending pictures of our work to our epals account. These are the many things we do in Second Life.

Hi, my avatar name is Jorge Rodas. I go to Lowell School in Phoenix. I have learned in Second Life to build furniture and our own rooms. I am learning to make a house in Second Life. It could help me in the real world by being a sculptor for my career because now I know how to build things. If you want to build a piece of furniture you have to left click on your mouse and go to build and you choose your sphere or a 3-D shape you like. You stretch your 3-D figure till you like the size. Then you can connect your shapes by linking them. To get money you have to work for your money like the real world. You communicate by a microphone or a chat bar on the bottom of your screen. There is a Lowell Depot on Second Life’s land. It sells wallpaper, carpet, and glass. Your avatar can fly in air. You can customize your avatar in Second Life. Mostly we have an assignment for Ms. Strehlow and if we accomplish our work we get Linden money.

My name is Paulo Aquila. I learned a lot in Second Life. At first you have to go to Gimp and make your name for your t-shirt using Bling. Then I learned how to build and work on projects. I was building a table and received Lindens. Each time I built more furniture, I received more Lindens. In Second Life you can fly and drive cars but you have to build them first. There are some apartments and you buy them and live in them. You paint them and then put items in the apartments like an Xbox360 and more. After I built a table, I built a lamp. There is a store called Lowell Depot and they sell textures and carpets. The money that we used is called Lindens. I don’t have that much Lindens. It is cool you have to take pictures in Second Life. I took my picture when I was flying.

The Living Room Project

Next week everyone will be transitioning from the living room solo project to the house building small group exercise. Most of the work in this class is done "at your own speed," but I also want to keep them challenged. By now, each student has learned enough to be a valuable team member even if they can't do everything themselves. This will be a good chance for them to understand what skills and talents they can bring to the table. This coming week they will be doing some reflective writing about the experience so far and I will certainly get those posted as soon as I have the final copies.

The students who were in Advanced Computers during the last trimester of 08-09 will move from their house building project to a project of their own devising that directly relates to one or more of their other content areas. Those of you who "know" Second Life will probably nod knowingly when I tell you that one student mentioned building a pyramid. (One of the basic shapes is already a pyramid) I asked if they were studying ancient Egypt and he said no. This project must be something they are going to be studying this year, so it will require much more of a "connection."

We've Got Our Bling On!

The students are now wearing their special "bling" t-shirts. The first assignment was not done in Second Life, it was done using the open source software called "Gimp." Students learned how to use many of the paint and effect tools by creating their name in bling which was then applied to a black t-shirt template used in Second Life. Today we continued the sofa and matching chair problem with a new twist. The students will create a vignette that looks like a furniture showroom. They will add a few accessories such as tables, lamps, wall decor, and rugs. Although this is a solo assignment, students confer with each other regarding the new skills they are honing. Once they each have a good skill level, they will be able to more easily collaborate on upcoming challenges. These photos were taken by students and sent to their epal accounts for storage. (See video below)