Second Life...I'm Just Not That Into You

Here is me as April Shilling lost, alone and confused:



Here is me as April Shilling finally finding Info Island:






Honestly, I just don't get Second Life. I tried it - and spent more hours on there than I'd care to admit - but I just do not get it.

Like Amy, I couldn't find where I had to go to get different clothes and accessories. I walked around and flew around in that pink polka dot, I'm-a-newbie-Scarlet-Letter dress for hours. I'm convinced there is no escape from the pink polka dots.

I was frustrated and confused by Second Life even after the tutorial and a Google search for tips. Second Life dropping me off in a virtual world where the first place I managed to successfully navigate to had boxes marked p**sy palace did not help either. Quite frankly, the only places that looked interesting were the ones I couldn't access. I did eventually find Info Island which is done rather well and somewhat redeemed the entire experience for me.

Dear Steve and Class:

Please keep teaching this. This is a cool class. I enjoyed interacting with classmates and getting to know everyone’s thoughts and ideas. Thanks to all for the comments and feedback on my assignments which made me continue to think through some of the things we discussed even after the week was over. I’ve really enjoyed all the things we learned and now I feel like I no longer have to preface everything with “I’m not tech savvy.”

This may get some negative comments from some, but I think the final is a good thing. Working on the final has helped reinforce what we learned. It’s also helped me to work on some areas I had trouble with during the semester. The final is creative. We also get to pick just about anything we want for a topic so everyone should be able to find something enjoyable for this project...and it's better than writing a term paper!

Things I would consider changing: Spending less time on social networking. Maybe this could be merged into another week’s assignment to leave more room for podcasts/vodcasts/screencasting which I felt took more time?

Materials I would definitely keep: Twitter, Feed, Everything Bad is Good For You, Michael Wesch videos, Flickr projects.

I would keep Introduction from Keen (even though I love to disagree with him) as a first week reading because I think this article gets a strong response from people right away and gets you excited about the class.

Gaming is a keeper too :-)

Everything Bad is Somewhat Good for You Part II

Libraries and librarians may be well served in the future to start thinking outside the box. As time goes by the line between what has traditionally been entertainment and what has traditionally been educational is being blurred and re-defined. We as professionals must be willing to accept – or at least try - all things that enhance the library experience for our patrons. As technology advances and culture changes, libraries must be willing to embrace an evolving library paradigm.

As Johnson points out, pop culture is becoming more complex and multi-faceted. In the future every new release will need to try to be more memorable and cutting edge than what was released the year before. These days, after all, I honestly think it would be hard to argue that mind-bending movies (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), can’t-miss-an-episode TV shows (Alias, Lost) and challenging games (Myst, Guitar Hero, Halo) don’t challenge us all to think outside the box at least a little bit. These days pop culture does have to offer something unique or challenging. The consumer is not going to be easily swayed to lay down hard earned cash.

Let’s not forget we live in a world where some 4 year-olds have mastered basic computer skills. Librarians need patrons. If libraries don’t keep up with the times, they will find themselves without patrons.

Let's Play Pinball

I love pinball so imagine my delight to see a pinball game up on Addicting Games. What is even better is that on this pinball game you can select 2-player and play with a friend like I did. I will say this pinball game is not quite as exciting as playing pinball in person, or even on a game console, but for free and low-tech this is cool.

Click here to see a screencast of my friend playing the first ball in her game.

Everything Bad is Somewhat Good For You

Sure, in some ways pop culture does “sophisticatedly deliver stupidity” There are plenty of mindless forms of TV, movies and games out there. Some pop culture, while visually appealing, is still dumb. Likewise, some pop culture, while dumb, can be thought-provoking, engaging and stimulating for others reasons.

Sometimes I watch movies I think are dumb. Sometimes dumb things have value that cannot necessarily be measured or defined. Sometimes watching, listening or playing things that are dumb teach you important skills that help you become a more well-rounded or creative person.

The other night I watched that new Hulk movie with Ed Norton on DVD. Did I learn anything from it? No. Does it have any intellectual value? Maybe something can be said for it’s take on human nature…ok, so basically that’s a no. But it did have some awesome special effects which led my friends and me into a discussion about computers, graphics, how realistic the action sequences were, etc. etc. When I was a kid watching Indiana Jones made all my friends interested in archaeology. I happen to think The Matrix may have inspired young people to learn more about science and technology. And didn’t I read once The X-Files prompted hundreds of young people to apply to become FBI agents and the CIA wanted Jennifer Garner to film recruitment ads when Alias was on TV?

Pop culture can be educational. Media can bring us to times and places we might not be able to visit on our own. We can watch documentaries about history, travel, home improvement, true crime and many others.

Bad things can be good for you…bad pop culture can be good for you too….in moderation…mixed in with a diet of “healthier” pop culture items.

Screencasting Best Practices

First, I was fortunate to not have any problems using Jing. Since I don’t fix anything that’s not broken, this blog post applies to my experiences using Jing only. Here's 2 things that have worked for me:

Plan and Practice…With screencasting, I usually find myself recording something more than once. I’ve found it’s helpful for me to write down an outline of what I’m going to say. I wouldn’t say write down everything verbatim like a speech – although that may in fact prevent me from saying um so many times in one screencast – but definitely do a little planning before you hit record.

Keep it short and simple…I’ve found recording in 800x600 or 640x480 like Steve suggests works well. In the past when I’ve tried to record a larger window Jing sometimes gets “stuck” on me. Also, when I’ve recorded something really long Jing sometimes gets stuck transferring the file to screencast.com. I’ve found keeping my screencasts short and to the point has worked best for recording and uploading.

Santa, please bring us a Wii

I’m going to pretend that I’ve been asked to decide what console my local public library should buy with the surplus (LOL) in our budget for 2008. We have held a few game nights where patrons have donated their own personal consoles to the library for one day for the purpose of the game nights. At the game nights we librarians talked to our patrons and we asked them to provide feedback about their experience, including which consoles and games they liked best. We have done some research on different consoles including price, price of games, need for other components or services, peer reviews, expert reviews, gaming websites and magazines, etc. Our librarians are forward-thinking types and we agree gaming has a place in the library.

We do NOT want a lot of violent and adult-rated games in the library. We do NOT necessarily have to get a console with the best graphics because we don’t intend to play extremely intense games. We do NOT necessarily need an online component. We DO have a budget. We DO want a console that has a diverse range of games for all ages, especially younger children due to our demographics.

Because of all of these considerations and the feedback from our patrons that it would draw them to the library (availability permitting), we’ll buy a Wii. Xbox would probably be our second choice.