For all intents and purposes, StudentAvatar made its public debut yesterday. We hosted a workshop at the Purdue Teaching and Learning with Technology conference along side Professor David Blakesly. The goal of the (far too short) hour was to get the thirty attendees registered with Second Life, into the world, and exploring some of the basic movement and camera controls. Some may say we set our sights too low (while one person in attendance seemed to suggest we set them too high). Regardless, the hour was an absolute blast.

There can be a lot of anxiety simply entering Second Life. The process of setting up an initial avatar and stumbling through Orientation Island can be quite overwhelming. A common criticism of SL from the start has been its lack of hand holding, and even less guidance on what one should actually "do" with their Second Life once its brought into virtual existence. For those of us who’ve been in-world for a long time now, it is easy to forget how disorienting the whole genesis scene can be. With that said, all of us were quite proud of the work we did yesterday. A number of attendees approached me after the workshop and said we got them over that anxiety hump and that they’re looking forward to going back in.

Mission accomplished, I’d say.