The Story of My “Second Life”

“… and I’ll tell you who you are,” as the expression goes, is certainly true in Second Life. I’m amazed at the quality of people I’ve met in such a short period of time, and, the profound effect they’ve already had on my research.

I’m shown here chatting at last night’s ISTE social (Thursdays, 6pm SLT, ISTE Sky Park) with (left to right): Jeremy Braver, a teacher from Texas working on his Masters degree in EDTECH, who is developing a math-themed island on the Teen grid where I hope to participate as a visiting educator; Kittygloom Cassady, the person behind ISTE’s fantastic and growing SL presence; Decka Mah, an SL researcher who happens among other things to be working in real life on her Ph.D. and who was the ISTE Outstanding Leader of the Year in 2006; and Azwaldo Villota, another researcher (I believe) but VERY serious SL developer who showed us a prototype portable display board (like the screen in the background of this shot, only a bit smaller, easily manipulable, portable, and interactive.) He demonstrated it in the ISTE Sandbox for us near the end of the social.

One interesting side note: if you look closely at the picture, you can see how Kitty and I are standing differently than Azwaldo. (Jeremy and Deckah are chatting (typing) so you can’t tell what their stance is).Note the subtle differences in stance between our avatars (Kitty’s and mine) and Azwaldo’s. Kitty looks elegant and professional with her hands ar her side. I’ve got the ‘yeah, that’s what’s up’ look going on … but Azwaldo has a somewhat rigid look about him. That’s because Kitty and I have “animation overrides” that control how we walk and stand, making us appear more lifelike. More on this later, it’s one of my “accomplishments” for the week.

-kj-