First Office Hour!

Today I held my first Biochemistry office hour in SL. After numerous e-mails in which I had requested free space for this use, I had decided to meet students at the CVL learning lab. This was the announcement that I posted on eCompanion:

Second Life: How to begin

Become a free member in Second Life. You can do this at http://secondlife.com

• Download the Second Life viewer. http://secondlife.com/beta-viewer/

• Once you are logged in, you will find yourself on Orientation Island. Once here, you may get distracted customizing your avatar J However, feel free to attend office hours in whatever outfit you like. It may be beneficial to spend a bit of time on Orientation Island learning how to walk, fly and teleport.

• In order to attend office hours, just click on the following Second Life URL called a slurl. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/111/226/32

• Once you have clicked on the slurl, a box will pop up in your Second Life Viewer and you can click on teleport. I will wait for you here!

My Avatar’s name is Serratia Warcliffe. This is a picture of Serratia in the learning space where we will meet.

• Please note that I am also still a relative “noobie” on SL. The reason that I want to hold office hours here in addition to those on Elluminate is to mimic a sense of physical presence. We can discuss topics and talk about homework problems. However, I am still learning and we will learn together

At first it was pretty disheartening because no-one showed up. But, then after about half hour, someone did come. I was able to chat with him and show him around Amino World and the virtual cell on Genome island. I tried the audio but he was unable to hear. I will play around with this a bit to see if it is my sound or something else?? In just this single meeting I already feel closer to the one student who came. I somehow gained a feeling for his personality and since he is one of 90 in class this summer, his coming to this single office hour will greatly distinguish him!