Surf's Up, Dude!

Welcome to imagiLEARNING!

We're going to assume that you are standing on the small island located at the entry port to imagiLEARNING Island. You are standing on the middle of the three islands that make up imagiLEARNING. To the West is the creatively named imagiLEARNING West...and to the East...yep, imagiLEARNING East.

If this is your first visit, please feel free to wander around and just explore the resources of the three islands. If you are also still new to Second Life, you may end up spending a good amount of time underwater...as the pathways take some time to learn to navigate comfortably. No worries...we all started out in the water. Allow yourself to be a learner and just carry a towel with you for a while.

Crossing the bridge to the East takes you to the Wharf area, where you will find a collection of buildings and the boatdocks. Just across the bridge, on the right side of the boardwalk, is a small kiosk containing virtual newspapers with interesting information about what is happening in Secondlife regarding education. Feel free to click a copy. Oh, now this is important. The first building you come to across the bridge...with the balcony...that's the little freebie store. Stop in and grab some of the free 'stuff' that is lying around. Right click on it, and in the menu that appears either click TAKE A COPY, or BUY it for $0. We'll talk about what to do about those goodies in the next module.

If you cross the bridge to the North instead, you will find the imagiLEARNING Conference Center. This building holds meeting rooms and the Unlimited Possibilities Theater. The theater is frequently used by groups in Second Life...but feel free to explore. At the far end of the conference center is Hang Ten, a local nite spot where you can go up on stage and try your hand at some scripted musical instruments. Don't be shy if others show up...it's just a jam session.

Beyond the Conference Center, at the Northern edge of this island is Pat's Cay, with the Infamous North Beach Tiki Bar. This is where you will often find some of us relaxing at the end of a busy day, talking education, surfing, dancing...just being. Dress is casual.

When you are ready, fly to the SouthEast corner of the island, over close to the wharf boat docks. There you will find a large raised island that is the home of some of the imagiLEARNING group members. This is space provided to educators who join the group to do some serious exploration of using virtual environments for learning (more about the group later). The contents of this space change frequently as members do their creating and re-creating in search of new learning tools. Feel free to explore, and if you see someone working there, be sure to say "hello".

Next is the far NorthEast corner of the island where you find the imagiLEARNING Lighthouse. This is the area to explore some of the interesting games and other elements built and scripted by creative Second Life developers. These are examples of the application of programming, math and Physics, and collaboration that we seek to get our learners involved in. The games are all free...so play!

As you have noticed, the largest area of the island is not island at all, but beautiful blue water. This may change over time as projects increase, but the open space and crashing waves creates a nice, relaxing environment for the creative work we are involved in. Plus, it lets us hop in a sailboat or on a surfboard once in a while at let off some steam! That's important too, you know.

The other two islands are worth some exploring as well. While we will talk more about them later, imagiLEARNING East is a wide-open area where some of our courses and workshops hold their activities. Just what you will find there completely depends on what is on the schedule at the time. But there is plenty of great beach and water to explore...just be careful around the sharks found in the deep water at the North end of the island. They are NOT friendly.

And, as you will see, imagiLEARNING East was the home of the first in-world surfing championships held by the Second Life Surfing Association in June. The large pipeline waves are scripted to have physical interaction with the scripted boards, which also include animations to control your avatar. Great examples of how to make learning real, meaningful and fun.

Before you leave imagiLEARNING island, there is one very important thing you should do. Go back to the starting point...the little island in the SouthEast corner of the island where you see Alex still hanging around. Once there, click on the WORLD menu at the top of your screen and then click "SET HOME TO THIS LOCATION". Now, anytime you are in SecondLife, you can return to this spot by clicking WORLD, and then clicking TELEPORT HOME. Now you never need to worry about getting lost.

Last thing.....before you end your visit to imagilearning take a piece of paper or open your word processor and jot down your first reactions to the experience, as well as any ideas that have come to mind about how you might use virtual worlds in your teaching.

Ok, that's it for now. Take your time to explore and play around a bit, and come back anytime. When you are ready, move on to the next module.

Module 4: Inventory Management

or, return to Module 2.

or, go back to the Introduction