Heritage Key: Initial Reaction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.