The Final Round

I have made it to the final project. This has been a very engaging journey. I do wish all of my courses were interactive.I am not much of a social media person or a gaming person, but Second Life allows me to be creative. I keep thinking it is too bad I cannot teach my grade level with this tool. Mostly I have been building personal type items, but I dream of building my custom made classroom. I think about how my collegues might enjoy professional development more in this setting.

I have had a lot of fun with the final project. My theme
is Van Gogh's paintings. i have tried to depict The Yellow House and The Bedroom in Arles in 3D. My intial work was building, but I wanted this space to be a lesson in analyzing art work. I am especially proud of the bedroom. My hope is that when you come into the setting, you feel as though your are in Arles and that you can walk into the "Bedroom" painting. I imagined what else would be in the Yellos House.I created a small area with a sink, stove,
table, and chairs. The furniture isn't the right period, but I like that I did it myself.


Besides the eat-in kitchen, I also created a secret hidden courtyard. It looks very green and has a beautiful fountain.

What I Learned From the Second Life Wiki

I am looking around the SL Wiki, searching for what interest me. I notice Sample Classroom Spaces. One of my dreams is to build my ideal classroom. So of course, I have to check it out.
Well I visited a few places and I liked some of what I saw.

One classroom looked very traditional.







Most of the other places resemble business meeting areas and not classrooms. The following area had features that we are familiar with in an online course.



The last site I visited was also more like visiting a business conference room, but of the three, I liked it the best.

The Fall Festival Booth

As always I enjoy creating in Second Life. This particular project touched me because i dedicated it to my Mama. She loved decorating for Halloween. I am not a Halloween fan so when she lived with me I gave her a hard time about decorating. She is gone and I miss her, but I remember how she loved Fall and Halloween.I tried to think a little differently. I still don't think I have grasped the "out of the box" concept just yet. I think as I learn more about the tools that are available to me, my mind will open up. Trying to make leaves on the tree was a challenge. thinking back I think another shape would have been better to use. I also learned that you can link only so many pieces together. I started playing with the sculpted shape to make the trunk and limbs of the tree. Those sculpted shapes hold a lot of potential. I hear there are other types of sculpted shapes. That also will be interesting to explore. I love the colors of fall. I miss that about St. Louis. In my original mental plan for my tree, I wanted the leaves to fall. I will have to look into that someday.

Exploring Second Life for Educational Purposes

I finally traveled outside of my home island. I was hoping to find areas that I could use for educational purposes. Since I am an Art teacher, I thought I would look for famous landmarks in different countries. i do not anticipate traveling out of country anytime soon so I thought I would travel in Second Life. I also wanted to find picturesque scenes that inspire.
I did find Paris and eventually the Eiffel Tower. I found it a challenge to see because it was so big. I wanted a close up picture of me on the tower, but that didn't seem possible to do.



The next place I visited was influence by Persia. I thought the rugs, carpets, and art were very nice. What surprised me is that I found an area that is meant for public education. But still, it was beautiful.