You may find that by the due date you have not completed all the tasks...and that is fine. This is an ongoing project that will continue for several weeks (and can be reported in several blog-posts).
The object of this assignments will be to get you fluent with:
- Taking snapshots in SL and getting the files to your blog
- Practicing basics of graphic-design and close-up photography in composition (Color, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity, and the Rule of Thirds)
- Finding locations
- Practicing movement and teleportation
- Logging chat and IMs, then editing and incorporating direct quotations and using paraphrases (essential for later research)
- Bonus: Earning Linden Dollars (fool that I am, I'm paying you...)
You will learn lots of other skills, but one of the best aspects is it GETS YOU TO READ the Getting Started in SL handbook. I've salted it with scavenger-hunt prizes. Start reading! Start hunting! Make Linden Dollars! Buy some hair, a car, a hat, and some shoes: just go wild, okay?
Process:
Each student will be given a folder of landmarks. The group should divide up the task of visiting these sites.
After the group divides the tasks of "who visits where," each writer must visit the location(s) and take a picture of him or herself (no screen captures!). See how to take pictures in the Getting Started guide. Upload the photos to your Koinup account and embed them in a blog post. Your avatar will get 50 Linden dollars when you post your photos.
The blog post should be a longer entry of at least 400 words. In that entry, cover at least three of the places you visit, and do the following:
- Discuss one's first impression of the location
- Note any "Uncanny Valley" moments
- Note what sort of clever details and activities await a visitor to the site
- Note what the group member learned about SL (or using it) from the visit.
Note, too, that since most of you are visiting the VA State Capitol for Core, some excellent connections suggest themselves. If you have visited the Capitol already, I'd like you to consider the differences between an actual place that has been rebuilt over the centuries to the virtual places you see (some replicating places you may never go, in the flesh).
There is a bonus prize for the first group to get to all of the landmarks. The group must tell me when they completed the hunt, and they must send me links to blog posts to prove it. Strongest posts become a feature at "In a Strange Land" and I will alert the virtual media!
More Linden Dollar prizes await you in the Getting Started Guide. See it for details.