MUVEnation, mvn08

EDUCATIONAL PLACES TRAVEL GUIDE

In accordance with the subject I decided to study: “Teaching science in Second Life”, I’ve visited
the following educational places:

ACS Island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ACS/86/203/25 - SL home of the American Chemical Society (ACS), with exhibits and events - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adelina_sporea/3125009588/

Astronomy and Physics Exhibits by Roger Amdahl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Primrose/204/55/86 - Exhibits explaining many aspects of astronomy and the associated physics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adelina_sporea/3125041892/

Biomedicine Research Labs - Sbarro Health Research Organization - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Biomedicine%20Research%20Labs/78/131/22 - SL headquarters of Sbarro Health Research Organization - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adelina_sporea/3125055932/

Nanotechnology Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Nanotechnology/219/219/23 - The nanoscience & nanotechnology hub of Second Life, sponsored by the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/adelina_sporea/3125072326/

Science Center - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infotainment%20Island/13/87/22 - Home of the SL group named Science Center. Several demo science exhibits on display -http://www.flickr.com/photos/adelina_sporea/3124256825/

Due to some technical problems I had to stop to these places only...

Not all the places I have explored are really educational places. Only three of them I can recommend: ACS Island, Astronomy and Physics Exhibits and Nanotechnology Island. They present interesting exhibits with explanations which can be accessed as posters, note cards or images show. There are also animations of the chemical reactions.

MUVEnation project, mvn08

Changing the appearance

My main concern is about too much time I need to accommodate with everything in the new world. I mean it is not enough only 8 hours activities as suggested at the beginning of module 1, section 2.

Anyway I found very interesting the change of appearance. I am still looking for some beautiful clothes and wigs. I feel very well in both shapes of my avatar because both of them have the same personality, I created just one character for now, not two; and of course, beautiful clothes make me feel more comfortable, as in RL. I think in education we still need to have an appropriate appearance.

I saw some other participants to the course very talented in finding a beautiful shape of their body and beautiful costumes too. I admired for example Evelyn Izquierdo photos on Flickr. She is very creative, her avatar is always wearing nice and modern clothes and she is a nice presence in any environment.

I think the appearance is very important and the behaviour too. I even met some people in the world who were embarrassed about their look and they apologised for that; and I was an unknown person! Some other time I travelled to the Orientation Island and I was teleported in the middle of very strange costumed characters. I did not feel very well…
I am confident I can do things better and I enjoy to experience. The only thing I need is time…

No matter how many hours we spent for the creation of our avatar we should be aware that it is only a character playng a role. I think that it could be dangerous to take SL too seriously. One can easily substitute his identity to those of his avatar. I understand SL can be a learning environment as it is considered a social space, but too many hours spent in world could isolate people; they communicate in SL but not in RL.