• description and analysis of the group process
• synthesis of readings and research
• reflection of how this process can further inform my experiences of learning communities.

My next assignment (group project) in EMT1 involves designing a learning community in Second Life (or SL to those in the know!). Psst…it’s actually my idea to use SL…for selfish reason…simply because I have no knowledge of SL, and my workplace is looking into having a presence in SL, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to immerse myself in SL, and learn from my group members.

I signed up for SL last night, and had a hard time coming up with a name as I didn’t want to be stuck with some crappy name for the rest of my SL! Thought I’d turn to the good, old Macquarie for inspiration…and bang, the very first word that I came across was “outré”. Loved it. Settled on “Finkel” as my last name simply because (1) I could pronounce it (!) as the rest (of about 20) had my tongue in knots when I attempted to, (2) it’s two syllables, as is my ‘first name’, and (3) it sounds a bit rude (well, at least to me anyway!).

I went into SL last night without the slightest idea of what I would be getting into. And guess what, I had to learn how to walk, with the arrow keys; to hop in and out of vehicles, and drive them; and apparently, I could fly, but since I hadn’t mastered how to walk, I wasn’t game enough to attempt flying. And all the SL and VW lingo! After 10 or 15 minutes of frustration, I gave up and went to bed.

I’m not exactly a computer whiz, but I am quite comfortable with it, and have been using it for the last 20 years. SL is really something else altogether. This is going to be a very steep learning curve. But I shall persist!

So is SL (and VW) for the young and young-at-heart, who are as comfortable in the real world as well as the virtual world? Is it totally beyond people like me, who have had virtually no experience in VW? And if SL is to be used in teaching and learning, the time factor is certainly a very crucial factor (as in getting inexperienced VW learners to be familiar and comfortable in be in SL) as there are only that many weeks in a semester.

Beginning to wonder if I am too old a dog to learn all these new tricks! Time will tell. Watch this space…