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.