Writing in Technology? What?

House of Usher in Second Life

2009-12-07T19:42:00.000-08:00

My group had a very interesting trip to the House of Usher. Together we convinced Roderick that Madeline was not dead and saved her from being buried alive. Because of our efforts, we got Roderick, Madeline, and her friend Margaret out of the House of Usher safely. When went to the House of Usher each group member was asked to beta-test some part of the experience and I was asked to try to figure out how we could expand Margaret’s role while keeping other possible outcomes available, which I think is very possible and would offer a unique interpretation of the Poe’s short story.

When we first arrived to the House of Usher, we were greeted by Madeline, Roderick, and Margaret. We followed them to the library where Meghan led Roderick to try to distract him while Chelsea searched for clues and I learned more information about Madeline and Margaret. Madeline constantly talked about taking some medicine and went searching for it, immediately Margaret and I followed her. I tried to convince her that she did not need to take the medicine, and if she was tired, she should just lie down and relax. Madeline did not listen to me and she took a small amount of the medicine then fell asleep. Then Roderick came in and tried to move Madeline to a different room, because she was not in the correct room. I tried to convince him not to move, because I was afraid if we left Roderick move her then he would move Madeline to the crypt in fear that she had died. Fortunately, Madeline woke up and waked to her rooms where she went back to sleep. After Madeline was in her room, Roderick and Meghan went downstairs to investigate noises that were scaring Madeline. Chelsea went to talk to Margaret while I watched Madeline so no one would think that she was dead and move her to the crypt. Then suddenly Madeline disappeared and I went to Margaret to find out where Madeline would have gone, then Roderick came upstairs and then shouted where Madeline was and then disappeared. We had no idea where they went but then Chelsea said to come down to the crypt quick, so I ran down with Margaret to the crypt. There I found Madeline laying in a coffin with Roderick standing beside her and Chelsea talking to Roderick. Then Roderick got into the coffin lying in the room, Chelsea talked to him and go Roderick to come out of the coffin. While Chelsea was talking to Roderick, I was trying to convince Margaret that Madeline was not dead. Then Roderick came over and kept saying that Madeline was dead and Chelsea and I kept saying she had a heartbeat and her cheeks were flushed. However, the coffin kept closing and I kept opening it so Madeline would not be buried alive. Finally, Madeline woke up and started to question why she was down in the crypt. She did not want to come with us because she thought that we put her in the crypt. Eventually we convinced her to leave the house with us and then we all left the house unharmed and all alive.

My beta-test was to help figure out a way to expand Margaret’s role while keeping the story line open for many possible outcomes. During the whole experience Margaret was trying to get Madeline to take the medicine and then was convinced she was dead. This made our job of trying to convince Roderick that Madeline was not really dead a lot harder. Despite the difficulty, I think that Margaret could have a very important role within the story. Margaret said something in passing about her being a nurse and companion of Madeline. One possible thing that Margaret could do is to try to steel Madeline’s “dead” body. This would incorporate something into the House of Usher that was originally part of Poe’s story. Also, you could have Margaret try to keep Madeline on her daily schedule, which would include taking the medicine. Basically, I would try to get Margaret more involved in the story line because he could offer a unique character that could really influence the outcome of the role-playing.

Altering Poe's Story

2009-11-19T12:47:00.001-08:00

If I was a participant in The House of Usher, I would try to stop Roderick from putting Madeline into the tomb. I would try to explain to Roderick that Madeline is not really dead and he should let her stay in her room. But before Madeline goes into her coma, I would have tried to get her to leave the house and try to get Roderick to leave the house. Because if both people were removed from the house then possibly Roderick, Madeline, and the house would be saved.

If I could not remove Roderick and Madeline from the house, I would go into the crypt and take Madeline out of the tomb. This would hopefully prevent her from dying, and Roderick dying from grief. If none of these options worked I would use my last resort and lock Roderick in his rooms so Madeline could not get to him. Basically, I would try my hardest to keep both Madeline and Roderick Usher alive.

Second Life: Prolbem with Communication Technology?

2009-11-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Second Life is a place where anyone can do or be anything they want to. Although SL provides all of its users with the ability to do or create anything they want, within SL rules, the virtual world does not have the capability to be a common technology for communicating at the moment but it has the potential to.

Today, almost every teenager has a Facebook, there are more than 300 million users. Because of Facebook's prominence in society and culture it is has become a main form of communication for many people. Since Second Life does not have as many users and is not widely used in today's society or culture it has not reached its highest capability for communication.

Although there are groups and business in Second Life they are usually confined to the virtual world. And during my time in SL I have found that many of the residents do not communicate with their friends in Second Life outside of the world. I believe this because I do not communicate with any of my SL friends outside of the world and I do not want to be contacted by them outside of SL. Also, Second Life could be used as a tool to "escape" from ones real life so would they want people from SL contacting them in the outside world?

Thus from my personal experiences and knowledge about Second Life and other forms of online communication I believe that SL is not a common form of communication. However, I believe that in time SL might evolve into a technology that many people in society use for communication purposes.

Heritage Key: Initial Reaction

2009-10-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Contrary to Second Life the creation of an avatar in Heritage Key is very straight forward and simple. I really liked using Heritage Key, it was straight-forward and they explained all the controls in the first few moments you were in the world. Also, Heritage Key provides all of the clothing you need right when you start and that makes it easier to use than a virtual world like second life. Also, I think that Heritage Key will be very useful because of the educational purpose of the virtual world. Heritage Key will only have people who are in the education field in the world, and the world gives a person the opportunity to learn about something that they might not ever see in reality, King Tut's tomb.

Heritage Key explains every important object and lets you interact with the tomb, which makes the whole world interesting and enjoyable to be in. I think that Heritage Key provides educators and students with an excellent opportunity to learn and be part of King Tut's tomb.

Burning Life Fashion Show

2009-10-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

During Burning Life I decided to go to the Fashion Show. I decided to go there because I am interested in learning about how a business can work in Second Life. I had many questions about running a business in SL, but my main question was is it worth in monetarily to run a business in SL or is a business more profitable in the "real world". I did not ask these questions to anyone in attendance, but I did begin to realize the real money that you can make in SL. Before the fashion show I thought in using Second Life as a business one could only make a small amount of money. But I soon discovered at the fashion show, people can make really good money from in this case designing clothes in SL.

In addition to learning about running a business in SL I discovered that you really need to follow the rules of etiquette in SL, because people will get mad at you if you do not, but aren't their rules both written and unwritten for every society including virtual worlds. Thus, the rules of etiquette were expected.

Overall, I enjoyed the fashion show and got answers to my questions although I did not actually ask any questions. And I discovered the importance of business and rules of etiquette in Second Life. Although I did notice how unrealistic most of the clothes were, most were so unrealistic I did not really appreciate them but there were a couple of outfits that I really liked. I really enjoyed going to the fashion show because I got the opportunity to interact with other avatars.

Second Life Scavenger Hunt Entry Two

2009-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

I was really interested in all of the places that I went to during the first part of my Second Life scavenger hunt but I wanted to go somewhere that was interesting and informative. So for the second part of the scavenger hunt I went to the Genome Island. I chose to go here because we talked about it in class and it sounded really interesting. I am not interested in science in any way, but I still enjoyed Genome Island. I got to go into a cell and see all of humans chromosomes. It was very informative, but at points I had a little difficulty understanding which each 3-D object was or meant. This is from my complete lack of interest in science and lack of understanding of anything related to science. Although I dislike science I found that Genome island was very informative and interesting because of all of the cells and chromosomes on display.

Field Trip: First Blog

2009-10-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

I plan to attend the Burning Life fashion show or the Fireworks Show. I chose either of these two events because they looked interesting. I will choose between the two activities the night they are due on the timing of each and my work schedule.

Question about Second Life

2009-10-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

Second Life can be very confusing, as a newcomer I can attest to not knowing what I am doing either walking, flying, or buying clothes. Because Second Life is confusing, it raises many questions. One of which is how can a person successfully run a business in SL when so much technology is involved throughout the process?

Second Life involves a lot of technology but usually it is easy to comprehend and use. However, when building a building SL becomes more involved in technology and to be proficient in this one must understand how to use all the technology involved. Also, to run a business in Second Life one must know how to use technology to complete a business transaction and exchange Lindon dollars to real US dollars. Thus, this leads to the claim that to run a business in Second Life the owner must understand complex technology.

Sources in College vs High School

2009-09-22T10:51:00.000-07:00

Writing using sources is very important in both high school and college, but misconceptions and differences exist between the schooling levels. One big difference between college and high school writing is the formatting of sources. In high school, I only used MLA formatting, but in college, I have to use all different types of citing depending on the class.

Additionally, in high school I never realized that there are different types of citing and I thought that everyone used the same citing style. At college I realized that everyone uses different citing styles, from English to History and Political Science.

Another difference that I found from high school to college is the use of annotations in a paper. In high school, all of my papers focus on one or two sources, and my teacher told us to put the citations at the ends of paragraphs or at the end of multiple sentences from the sources. In college this will not, work because you are using lots more than two sources and that is not correct citing.

Finally, another thing that I learned in college writing is that when you are paraphrasing authors writing you must significantly change the wording and truly makes the authors words into your own, because if you just change a few words you are really plagiarizing that authors work. In college, you must learn to cite in different citation formats for different classes, use annotations correctly in your paper, and learn how to paraphrase authors’ words correctly.

Second Life Scavager Hunt

2009-09-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

For my English 103 class we had to complete a scavenger hunt with two other classmates. My part of the scavenger hunt was to go to all the landmarks that involved shopping these included Milky 9, The Garden Center, Sarah Nerds Freebie Paradise, and NMC orientation.

The first place that I went to was the Milky 9. When you visit here you can get free clothing and accessories. I went here when I first created my avatar and changed its clothing and hairstyle to personalize it. Thus, my first impression of Milky 9 was a very positive one because they provided everything an avatar needed to get started in Second Life. Because everything is free you can "buy" as many clothes as you want and you learn how to but them on without ending up with a box on your head.

This is a picture of me in Second Life at Milky 9:

The second place I visited was the Garden Center. At the Garden Center you can buy anything from potted plants to a sky box. I really liked the Garden Center because all of the flowers in it, but I was surprised how expensive everything was, like 99 dollars for a potted plant. But if you had a house or store in Second Life these things would be very useful. I really enjoyed the time that I spent and the Garden Store because everything was so interesting to look at, like all of the waterfalls. Here I learned that you could really spend a lot of money on things like plants in Second Life.

Here is me at the Garden Center:

The third place that I visited was Sarah Nerds Freebie Paradise. Here you can get free clothing and hairstyles like at Milky 9. What surprised me here was that the store was under construction. I previously thought that nothing could be under construction in Second Life. Here I learned how to "buy", everything here is also free, and put on things that I buy. Also, like Milky 9, Sarah Nerds Freebie Paradise is a very good place to start when you first enter Second Life.

Here I am walking into a building at Sarah Nerds Freebie Paradise:

The fourth and final place that I visited was NMC orientation. Here an avatar can get orientated with basic Second Life functions, like talking and flying. This is a very good place to start when you begin Second Life or if you ever have any questions about basic functions of Second Life. At first this place looked pretty basic but as I walked around I realised that this place could be very informative and helpful.

I am standing in the center of the NMC orientation:

All of these places involve shopping and getting started in Second Life, thus it is very important that people just starting out in Second Life go to these places. Also, all four of these places are great places to practice things like talking and flying. Also, these places are excellent places to get started in Second Life because they do not look like the real world, thus providing a stepping stone to new avatars into Second Life. Because new avatar see that this is a virtual world before they realise how really Second Life actually looks, After the scavenger hunt, I realised how many things you can learn by going to places that involve shopping.

Avatar in Second Life

2009-09-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

For my English 103 class we recently had to create an avatar in Second Life. This was a completely new experience of me and I did not know what to expect. When I created my Avatar I gave it the name Jordyn. I chose this name because I really like the name Jordan but that name was already taken, so I chose the next best version of that name. Also, with Second Life you can make your avatar look as close to the real you as you want. I did not do this because I feel like there is only one me and there should not be a copy of me online. However, I did change multiple things about my avatar, this include its eye color, I changed it to blue, its hair color, I changed it blonde, and its clothes, I changed them to things that I like but would not wear in real life. Overall, I feel like the avatar is a good idea for the class but I don't think I will use it after this class is over, and I am not sure of how I feel having an avatar, even though it does not really look like me, online.

Will a Typical Writing Process Cut it in College?

2009-09-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the Transition to College Writing by Keith Hjortshoj and found it very interesting. It talked about the writing process of most students transitioning from high school to college. And how students shorten that process to fit their needs or time schedule; the typical writing process of a high school student going into college is:

1. Think about your subject matter, you can or cannot use an outline
2. Write your paper
3. Edit the paper
4. Turn your paper in (Hjortshoj 67)

In my experience this is the way that most high school students write, my classmates would come into school the day the paper was due and ask “what time did you finish your paper last night” or be printing their paper in the study hall right before our class. It is the fastest way to write and can be accomplished at the last minute if you procrastinate. Even I have completed a paper this way before, and I can tell you what I get on my papers when I use this writing process, a "C" at best. Thus, to be successful in college writing you must expand that writing process to include drafts. This can be hard because it takes up time, but in order to get the best paper and grade it must be done. A thing that I find very useful is if I am writing a paper is I will complete my first draft and turn off my computer and go do something else that has nothing to do with my paper for at least an hour. Then I will come back to it and start editing. I find that this lets me see my errors clearly and rework the awkward sentences or paragraphs. If you incorporate something like that into your writing process it will help you write a better paper. For me it is the first step in developing my writing process that will start with thinking about possible topics for my paper on the day I get the assignment, not the day before its due. Also, I am going to add more drafts and editing into my writing process so I can get the best grade possible. Then, hopefully, my writing process will enable me to write better and more effectively and get good grades on all my papers.