Building My Utopia - Chinese Mohist School (墨家)

In the world of second life not only can you customize your appearance but you can also build anything you want. It is one major function of second life because everyone can build their own unique places and connect the places to become parts of the world in second life. Building in second life is quite difficult and complicated because you have to go through many detailed processes to make your building look nice. The first thing you need to do is to select a place that allows you to build on it, because not all the places are open for all users to build. After you select the place, simply click the right click of the mouse and choose “Build”. Once clicked inside the button you can design the object you want to construct. Also you can choose the object from the pictures on your desktop to build.

   Our group decides our final project to be based on the Utopia of Chinese Mohist School (墨家). We planned to build underwater city similar to the Venice city. And the concept of our Utopia is similar to Mohist School (墨家) which is to demonstrate love and compassion.      

Building Your Utopia

Skyping # 2

There are ways to improve learning for second language students. The first way is to provide sufficient time for student, so the students in the end of the class can ask questions or discuss together. The second way is to provide a comfortable environment for learning. For example, provide some food to let the students feel less pressured. The third way is to provide some money incentive (motivation) which is to motivate students to work hard. The fourth way is to provide students with techniques and language. If we teach the student to use the online devices then they can try surfing the web by themselves and apply other tools to assist their learning. Also, it is important to learn different languages.     

One way to make learning more like playing and less pressured is through online games such as second life. The second way is through singing competitions. 

Skyping # 1

It is inevitable for us to use electronic devices such as computer or smart phones to communicate with others. Therefore, it is essential for us to acquire the techniques of fast typing because people on the other side of the electronic devices will not want to wait. After all the purpose of online communication is to work as the real life interaction between people. As a result it is necessary to acquire some online slang to make conversations easier. With the growth of electronic devices we do not have to carry a lot of books with us or go to the library because you can just download electronic books in your devices. Also, useful tools are created to make our lives more comfortable and connected. For example, the use of google translator can help people speaking different languages communicate. 

Second Journey in the Wandering Second Life World ( Map, Camera and Texture)

Pic(1):  Flying next to the clock tower
Close shot

In the world of second life there is a very useful function to prevent you from getting lost. It is similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS) which is used for guiding locations. In second life, simply clicking the map button and it will show up a map telling where you are currently and indicates the position of other people in the same location. 

Dancing happily with the rest of group members

By using the map function I was able to meet up with my group members in the area constructed by previous classmates. We all decided to dance in front of a maze and everyone danced different moves which looks very funny. 

Pic(2): Accidentally breaks inside someone's
house- Long shot

Moreover, in second life you can control the camera in different angles. For example, you can take high angle shot, long shot, full shot, close shot and medium shot. There are some pictures that I took from different camera views. Picture (1) is where I took a close shot of myself with the clock tower; picture (2) is where I took the long shot of myself and the house that I accidentally break inside; picture (3) is where I took a medium shot with my group members and picture (4) is where I took a full shot of the gallery built by previous students of the “Journalistic Class”. 

Pic(4): Visiting the gallery created by previous student
in the course "Journalistic Writing"- Full shot

Pic(3): Taking a group photo on top
of the clock tower- medium shot

My First Second Life Avatar ( Appearance, Group )

My personal avatar

The interesting feature about second life is creating a personal avatar online. I think it is a very interesting experience because you get to design the appearance of your avatar. By clicking on the R click on your mouse or click the appearance button on the left side of the list you can customize the appearance of your avatar in a wide range. For example, you can choose the hair style, the color of the eyeballs, the height of the avatar and what clothing you want to wear. You can always change the appearance of it whenever you like, so you do not have to worry about making mistakes.

I named my avatar Robert Ching, which is the same as my real English name. I was invited by the teacher’s assistant to join the class group “Play”. The advantage of joining the group is that you can easily talk to everyone in the group. Also you can teleport to the location of your group members and track other members easily. After joining the group was quickly offered a teleport by the teacher’s assistant to his location. He gave me $1000NTD inside second life to purchase things I need to dress myself.