I find an old half finished post about Twitter vs SL, and finish it

Blog posts completed after mere 5 year delay: 1 (good)
Had decided to post here for first time in mumble-mumble months, when noticed had 66 draft posts. As had thought, most of them consisted of few enigmatic words or a couple of random pics., but this seemed almost complete, so have decided to post it. Unfortunately forgot to note down when actually drafted it*: think was 2015, though that seems a bit late for 1st Tweet chat. Anyway here it is:

------------roll back time to 2015-------------
For first time participated in Twitter-only discussion this week. Could not help but compare with SL equivalent so decided to be Reflective Practitioner and blog about it. Was then question of which of my x zillion blogs I should burden with these pearls of wisdom. Thought people would be least likely to read it if I put it here, and hey haven’t blogged here recently**, so here we go.

Discussion was about info literacy, so is pretty easy to compare with some Infolit iSchool discussions. Must start by saying that am not that keen on Twitter. Have blogged about that HERE. Blog I blogged THAT on is more Serious Blog (though with risibly low page hits, but whatever) so omitted to mention key drawback which is that on Twitter no one can see whether you have a kitten on your head. Or your shoulder. Or new spiffy cowboy boots with pink ribbons. In fact you could be a dragon or a dancing cabbage and people still wouldn’t know. Whereas in SL it is all out there for people to see and make merry banter about.

Tried to reign in refs to SL in above blog post, because we all know that people think that people who like SL are, like, weird**, but was thinking how on SL do have fun. In fact in week before wrote Twitter-is-no-fun post had amusing post-meeting banter in SL with Kali and Pancha which started with fact that Pancha was wearing steampunk librarian outfit (lower half replaced by gears). Led to reminicences about when Kali rezzed with no top on and I took pics and then had to promise not to post them to Flickr. Lord how we chortled. You had to be there.

Anyway: Similarities between a discussion on infolit on Twitter and in SL:
1. Can be at your desk/ in bed/ in the pub i.e. anywhere where you have a device and an internet connection:
2. During discussion can nip out to make coffee, take a phone call, have a comfort break etc. etc.
3. You get an automatic transcript
4. Discussion overlaps and is disjointed
5. Technical problems
6. People use [inserted May 2020 use what??? language? a computer? I suppose people will have been using SOMETHING, let's leave it at that]
7. You find out some interesting stuff and talk to new people
Differences
1. On Twitter you get to talk to people who use Twitter, on SL to people who use SL.
2. Beginning and end of session are not so clear on Twitter, though of course could have been Twitter session I was in.
3.
------------roll forward to 2020---------

At this point typing had ceased. Presume was through lack of time, but perhaps was so overwhelmed with differences that had to go and lie down.

Anyway, can add some more differences, so, to continue
3. In SL shared digital space is more distinctive, and more likely to be brought into conversation
4. Also in SL can move location
5. Can use Twitter on all sorts of devices, and even when your device and signal are rubbish. Not so with SL
6. In SL can be present and not saying anything, but people still know you are there.
7. In SL people more likely to apologise for arriving late, or for dropping in late and then disappearing. In Twitter get more people divebombing in and out (or perhaps they've been there all the time not saying anything, one can't tell, see (6)
8. On SL saying goodbye and thanking people takes 3 times as long as on Twitter. This is an estimate. If anyone wants to give me money to test this hypothesis, yes please.
9. More likely to get an idea of what was said on Twitter afterwards, as will be able to search on hashtag even if no-one has archived chat. In SL depends on someone sharing chatlog
10. Are more likely to get pics of the SL discussion posted than Twitter discussion, in that - why would you even take a pic of a Twitter discussion?
11. In SL more likely to comment on people's appearance and people more likely to change appearance during session.
12. SL is more fun. It just is.

Hmm, not sure that is unbiased assessment, but this is a reflection, not some nonsensical attempt at objective evaluation. Have illustrated this with pics of some of my devices in SL plus me in a kimono with a small donkey companion, because, why not

*As soon as had looked at it Blogger helpfully updated date to today's. 
** No change there, then

I vlog therefore I am

Vlogs created: 3 (good, in parts)
Have discovered am natural vlogger, at least that is my view and as few other people are likely to even come across the vlogs am unlikely to be contradicted. First vlog came about as think had been using Camtasia to record lecture thingy and so it happened to be open when the first ever Deco(c)rate arrived with lots of yummy goodness (got to get into vlogger speak) in a virtual steamtrunk. Is addition to increasing numbers of schemes where you pay upfront to have a mystery box of stuff. You know who the designers are, but not the items. Up until Deco(c)rate (which is a pain to keep writing, what with those tricksy parentheses, so will just call it Dcrate), up until Dcrate had only gone for The Forest Event, which is variation on the theme, as when you pay the group fee, you can ramble round the v.v. cute sim (see below), snapping up the items, all for free, plus you know in advance what the things are.

The first box deal was Luxe Box, which have never even been tempted to buy, as most of the items are either (a) things would never wear because the are too skimpy and unattractive or (b) only for Mesh bodies (or often, a+b). I have stuck to what is now called the Classic Avatar body i.e. the body you are rezzed with. Given that most of my body is normally swathed in clothes, paying out a few thousand Linden and having to be clicking away at bits of alpha all the time seems not worth doing.
However, when everything is a home and décor item (as indicated by the name of the box, deco(c)rate) it seemed worth a look.  If you are interested in the Dcrate video it is here https://youtu.be/jsTFqxVHreY but am not embedding it as the resolution is too low. Had used normal resolution as for lecture videos, which seems fine for them, but for SL it is just not sharp enough (in fact am thinking - perhaps it isn't sharp enough for lectures either, hmmm).


Anyway, followed this up with 2 much shorter unboxing videos for !gO!'s advent calendar, which is rather better value than any of the crates or boxes, as you just pay 50Linden to join the gO group and then you can scoop up all the boxes, one at a time. The first dress alone was worth it, being a cosy long sweater dress of Nordic pattern, ideal for wearing whilst opening pressies on Xmas morning.


So! Here are the videos! Enjoy!!
Day 1!







And Day 2!

Gift, Exhibit, Orange

No of items found in inventory when search "pumpkin": lost count after 50 (bad); No of gifts: 1 (v. good); No. of free prims on Infolit iSchool: 526 (bad); No. of times neighbour's security orb attempted to eject me from own land: 18 in 3 minutes (bad)

Tis the season of mellow fruitfulness and halloween overdrive, so am stuffing inventory with floating candles, spooky houses, spooky greenhouses, tombstones, poisoned cauldrons, and some v. questionable items, namely a noose pose set and a burn-the-witch bonfire. Latter is great fun as you stand at the stake with flames licking round you, making unrealistic shrieking noises.

As usual have set up Halloween house on Infolit, this year in a shack on the hill. New items include aforementioned cauldron (dispenses apples which cause you to fall dead) and v. good ghost in form of flying pumpkin, from New Trails. Pancha has contributed an animated skeleton and some freebie candles that she created for a Day of The Dead project. Also had tombstone that dispensed ghost that followed you round saying she wanted her mummy. Spooky.
However, when visited tomb just now, the GHOST HAD DISAPPEARED, and was no longer to be seen in the Contents tab of the tombstone. That is even spookier, frankly, and also means product no longer works. Could ask for replacement, but on the whole that is just too much effort.
Meanwhile have a pumpkin for all purposes: pumpkin heads, pumpkin lights, pumpkin chairs, pumpkin to look like cats' heads; pumpkin soup; pumpkin pie; pumpkin gun; pumpkin earrings; pumpkins that come and hit you if you click them; static pumpkins of every size and hue; not to mention pumpkin-coloured boots, necklaces, shrugs etc. etc.
Am trying to show restraint, as it tempting to just pull everything out and Paint The Island Orange. Is easier since am fighting continual prim war. Students have been populating their mini islands, and I have been encouraging them to fill islands with stuff, but has now reached stage when really want to say DO YOU REALLY NEED YET ANOTHER PALM TREE but is easier to just keep zooming round trimming prims here and there.

Latest things to go were an old barbie (40 prims, see pic) and the cardboard house that was lurking under the Farradane Centre. Have fond memories of getting drunk with Pancha and Ishbel over that barbie, but is four years old, so postively vintage.
Autumnal colour added to by a) my final "52 weeks of colour" frock, which have selected from Caverna Obscura and b) v. pretty set of marigolds in vase on cute rustic stool which was unexpected gift from Hanaya's owner. Have got v. few blogger gifts to date, in fact think has only been 4 of which 1 (set of shoes) was v. useful, 1 (jewellery from Magpie) was pretty, and 2 were useless as were short dresses of kind do not wear.
At once opened box and tried to take pic to show gift-giver. Was thwarted for some time
1) Went to Fantasy Woods corner of Noyo. Was immediately bombarded with messages saying that was about to be ejected: neighbour must have set his security orb thoughtlessly wide. Loathe security orbs. IMed neighbour and await response.
2) Crashed
3) Logged in and went to autumn house and started to rez marigolds,
4) Crashed
5) Rezzed marigiolds
6) Crashed
7) Crashed again. Perhaps was Curse of the security Orb.
8) Tried logging into Infolit iSchool instead. Success!
9) Noticed Quilt was missing. retrieved her from under building. How DO they get down there.
10) Posed with Naomi. (see pic)
11) By this time had forgotten why had gone into SL in first place and started playing with Quilt.

Will use marigolds in final 52 weeks of colour post, as harmonises so well with dress. Am sad 52 weeks challenge is almost over. However, at approx 2 hrs per post x 52 weeks = 104 hrs, means have spent 3 working weeks on blogging virtual clothes for not many people to look at. Hmmm. Still, it was fun.

Educator's frolics and the perils of the group task

Group tasks assigned: 1 (good); Group names assigned: 1 (hmmm); No. of hours after midnight spent landscaping, chatting etc.: (would rather not say)

Was v. pleased to be invited a couple of months ago to become part of Educators Coop and have blogged a little about it already. Is led by North and his colleague Bluewave, and others are renting bits of land in the Educators coop sims for educational purposes. Is interesting mix e.g. one person teaching GIS, another music and so forth. Think others are all from USA, with range of jobs.

Can get v. interesting discussions and good to be with group who you gradually get to know. Main down side is that earliest that meetings ever start is 10pm UK time, and usually more like 1am, so am pushing further into zombie like existence.

Anyway task has been set, namely to develop some empty bits of Educators Coop for group use. Did not initially get involved, since missed start-off meeting and also have enough to do at moment, what with missed deadlines, marking, students arriving etc etc. However got drawn in at next Coop meeting and found myself in 3rd group, consisting of people who hadn't attended first meeting.

Now know from experience how this kind of group turns out. People email each other to arrange meetings to which only a random selection (any 2 from 4, for example) turn up, normally with different people at each one. At some point one group member will decide that she can't face getting a fail. She will attempt to pull things together by doing lots herself, but forget to reread the assignment briefing. Gradually others will join in but by that time it's too late. Something is submitted but the Emergent Leader will moan that it's not fair because if she's done it on her own, it would have got a better mark, and she just had to rewrite things that others did, especially X. X will complain that Emergent Leader was so bossy she didn't listen to anyone else so all sorts of good ideas got ignored. X will come along to complain with fellow group member Y, who will nod a lot and and spend the rest of the time texting. The fourth member of the group, Z, will simply keep a low profile as she really didn't do anything much except sign the Joint Declaration of Collaborative Work.

OK well obviously this is NOT how this project is proceeding. Must be said was a bit worried at first, however now seems to be getting along swimmingly. Swimmingly is good word as although is land-based idea, currently land has cute swimming channel all round the edge. Have had useful talks with Lorri, Grandma and Pirate and we have a Plan for 3 level design, aimed at orientation esp. for library and information people. Have done some landscaping, since as readers will know, find landscaping most fun in world aside from other things that don't talk about on this blog.

However will need to curb impulses, since as wrote on shared Google Doc just now:

"Sheila - damaged one level by mistake*; dug water channel (forming figure of 8, if you include channel on neighbouring land) so that you might be able to go all round in an inner tube; added a duck, frog, crane, some willow trees, cushions, patchwork rabbit-chair; tree stump seating arrangement and a useless loud watertube in the air. Am donating to group where I have permissions, except for the tree stump."

* fortunately Grandma was forgiving about this.

Frogs, ducks, trees, cute chairs: same old, same old. Must try to channel rusty tin cans, ambitious sky sculptures, minamalist mountain builds etc.

Have not mentioned group name. Is, ahem, Sheila's Sheisters. Perhaps will be bonding factor since I am embarraassed to have own name there and others are not sheisters. Or perhaps not.

1st pic taken by Bluewave shows whole Coop meeting playing round on land when was still under water. Other pics are by me. You see that funfair is the other theme.

Terraforming fun

Things learnt about terraforming: 1 (good)

Here I am in the terraforming workshop at the educators coop. What fun it is, terraforming is one of my favourite occupations. I terraformed the whole island and the various parcels of land I've had but You Can Always Learn Something New and in this case it was about using Select land and then Apply (e.g. Apply Raise Land). This saves time and I used it in my practice session. But in the end I reverted to doing most of it with the bulldozer. My Tip is that it is a good idea to use an overhead view and pull right out to get an overview of what you are doing when you are doing the major features, but check what it looks like at "ground" level now and then.
posted by Sheila Yoshikawa on Educators Coop 3 using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Classrooms

Visits to virtual classrooms: 2 (good); Virtual lunches consumed: 1 (good); Crashes on flying carpets: 1 (bad)

2 visits to classrooms of different types. On one hand was v. excited when discovered sim (Benesse possibly, must check name) which has faithful reproduction of Japanese school, as least is faithful reproduction of how schools appear in Japanese anime. Resisted ideas of changing into Japanese schoolgirl oufit (for moment anyway) as possibly seeming pervy and took various pics including this one consuming Japanese lunch in classroom. Can pick up lunch as freebie. V. cool. Was someone else exploring sim, in his case using "Negi" (magician schoolboy teacher from anime Negima!) avatar but didn't take pic of him.

2nd classroom different in that is virtual ideal classroom project in Jokaydia sim where educator is creating same under environmentally sustainable principles so is including virtual wormeries and the like. V. interesting and am popping in from time to time to see progress. On this occasion found that Jokay herself, plus educator doing project plus Heyjude were there. Pottered around looking at new additions including seating and said wormery.
Joined in flying carpet ride, always fun, but in this case got stuck on sim boundary and crashed so thus ended the visit.