Crikey!!! I was stuck in the sinking ground watching one of my fellow colleagues drowning in the river and I could not move!! Was this the end of me and her?….
…..One of the web2.0 tools that I was not interested in using was virtual worlds – be it my age or the fact that my brain could not possibly cope with any more new tools than what I had tried. Although I introduced Patch, a webkinz or virtual pet to grades 3/4 , that was the extent of my involvement. Well that was until yesterday….
An email on my Australian teachers mailing list alerted me to a professional training session for Quest Atlantis, a protected virtual world for students. So Jess and I enrolled in the four sessions that were offered. So Tuesday, March 4th at 6:00pm was our start time.
As our home internet connection can be challenging at the best of times, I wanted to test it and was online at 5:15pm. A mad panic ensued when I realized I had not even downloaded the software. Finally I entered Otakhub where cool, calm and pleasant surroundings put me at ease. Initially there was noone around but soon Bron, our instructor appeared. I soon found out that I had to goto view>third person to actually see my avatar, and there I was a young, slim teenager with jeans, casual t-shirt and ponytails.
Gradually the rest of the 14 strong teacher group came on board and I had fun doing backflips, dancing a range of steps, waving, giggling and chatting. I even plucked up courage to venture into the cave but got claustrophobic and returned to the fountain. A connection to skype allowed us to talk and listen to Bron’s instructions.
Then I met a brightly clothed avatar who kept staring at me and sending me telegrams, which I could not work out how to find, let alone read so I chatted to her instead. Again I got myself lost, but she told me I was at the fountain. Chat allowed me to find out that she was a grade 4 girl from Glenelg SA. Soon, she had to leave as she had girl guides on that night in the real world.
I admire Bron so much. She was flat out finding all the lost members of the group, guiding them through all their pleas for help and advice. She gradually found us all, gathered us together and after we touched the crystal, followed her to teacherville.
After I hit a number of rocks I finally managed to get to the island and that is where one of our group fell in the water and was drowning. To my dismay, I got stuck in the ground and could not get up at all. After 5 mins or so, I finally worked it out. Two and a half hours after logging in, I left to return to my real world. Such a lot of fun and an amazing experience.
My challenge now is to complete some quests and choose my own avatar before the next pd.
Tips for me
shift + arrow allows avatar to walk
ctrl + arrow allows avatar to run
Goto view>third person to see personal avatar.
+ should get you out of near fatal experiences eg drowning, disappearing into earh etc
