Learning to Fly

It was a nice change to actually be able to access the application having switched from my Mac to my PC. I was able to may things after a quick tour from a friend. What concerned me was how others and students could have the same problems. I quietly consider myself to be more than a newbie around computers but will be the first to admit I have a lot to learn.

Hopping from world to world was very cool and when we had our virtual meet up it was quite impressive to see everyone and a big surprise to see fancy dance moves, back flips and muscle poses. I had been to shop and enjoyed adding to my inventory especially the prices were unbeatable $0.00. Then the trip to Marlboro Island was very nice. It was disappointing that it did not res during our meetup.

I did work through the challenges and at this time need to go back and change the face of my portfolio as directed. I was able to upload an image from my computer but not able to add it a face. I think some of the techniques we are being asked to do may come more natural to a digital native than to this digital dinosaur.

I am happy to report I was able to access Marlboro Island and it did RES. You can see the snapshot here.

I was able to modify my appearance and having the ability to chat with voice was very nice as my typing can bit wonky.

I now have a bit of an inventory of stuff for a home and think that may be a good project to get some land.

I also liked looking at the lesson on the virtual boards for math class. I could see ways to integrate this into my web classes. I was also surprised to see how accessible the code was for scripts which made me think there are a lot of opportunities to learn and teach programming.

I think this week has made some very good progress in class. Yesterday we had a meeting at work with the management team for Games for Change http://www.gamesforchange.org/ along with graduate students and instructors from Lehigh University, Marlboro Graduate School, and colleagues from the United Nations to include an ambassador and we launched a project to build a game to teach about Sustainable Development Goals. Thing are moving along quite nicely and my virtual world new experiences are very helpful.

Oh let's not forget learning to fly - this is just plane fun to soar above and circle the lands like an eagle in the sky. For no reason it can be a joy to just fly around an explore and maybe find someone to interact with. This is a welcome break from the daily toils.

Games and Simulation

This semester I am starting a new subject learning about games and simulations. We are starting with a new tool Imprudence which has been a bit of a challenge. I have been able to modify my character.

This subject comes at a very good time for my work project and my Capstone. I don't have any gaming experience which I am in need of for both projects.

My Capstone is to create a tool to inform educate and inspire people about a set of goals being developed at my work that have to do with Sustainable Development.  I shared an example of a presentation a classmate gave using Inside Disaster about the earthquake in Haiti.
http://insidedisaster.com/haiti/experience

Colleagues at work agreed this would be something we could model to educate people about the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs. We took the idea to the Director of the Division and are working on developing the first module.

I found Jane Mcgonical's TED talk a great inspiration. It prompted me to but the book http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Broken-Games-Better-Change/dp/145583291X



This week we will be meeting with colleagues from work who are also working on using a game for learning and have three members of the Game for Change team attending our working group http://www.gamesforchange.org/ We spoke with Susanna Pollack Friday and she will be facilitating our workgroup.

I am excited about learning more about gaming. To date though my initial efforts with Jokaydia seem to be a solo effort. I expect once I view tutorials things should improve in my virtual world experience.