Reflection:
Writing to different audiences was very difficult. Each time I started a new letter, I had to get myself in a new frame of mind to write. For the letter to my sister Courtney, I had to use more of a social perspective to get her to like Second Life. Meaning, I had to talk about her favorite thing, shopping. For Tom, I had to explain Second Life again but use an educational perspective, telling him how it could enhance his class. For the letter that I sent to Kat, I had to do the total opposite. I could not do anything that I did in my letters to Courtney or Tom. This is because Kat already knows about Second Life. I used my letter to inform her of the different places I had visited that she may not have had the chance to visit yet.
Hey Courtney!!
I am taking this awesome English 103 course at school. One of the learning tools we are use is a site called Second Life.
Do you remember playing "the Sims"? Second Life is very similar to that! We get these avatars and we get to travel to where ever we want to go! We can travel to places like Mexico and the Sistine Chapel.
Do you want to know what the best thing is? We can go shopping for free! The free stores that I have visited are Milky 9 and Sarah Nerd's Freebie Paradise. At each of these stores, I am able to get anything I want, without paying a dime! There is no more "nagging mom" telling you that you are spending way too much on clothing and shoes. With Second Life, you can do it!
Talk to ya later!!
Caroline
Courtney:
No Response Yet!
Dear Tom, CORE and Linguistics Professor,
Hope you day is going well! I wanted to tell you about this interesting world that Dr. Essid introduced to me and my English 103 class. It is called Second Life. It is a great site that at first glance seems just like a video game. It is far from that! It is a site with immense educational value. It has hundreds of "islands" for all different types of interest that any member can travel to. For instance, I am able to teleport to the Virtual Sistine Chapel, Virtual Mexico, or even Virtual University of Richmond!
When I really started thinking about the possibilities of Second Life, I thought that it would be very beneficial for our study of Fountain and Tomb! How cool would it be to be able to build our own "alley" and be able to have class there? It is something that is possible if you use Second Life! We would all be able to meet in the "alley" and have discussions just like if we were in class! What kind of perspective changes would happen in our class if they were able to get not just a mental, but a visual representation of what the alley was actually like?
All the best!
Caroline
Tom:
No response yet!
Dear Kat,
Because you are in my class, you probably know a lot about Second Life and how it works. I wanted to tell you about the awesome places I visited today. Because my family does not travel very much, I was super excited to "teleport" off to these different islands.
The first place I visited was Mexico. I never realized how amazing Mexico is. There are so many bright lights and billboards. There is also so much culture and history; and you can feel it walking through this virtual world.
Another place that I visited virtual Harlem. Harlem would definitely not be the first place on my list to visit if I was to go to New York myself. I got to take some great pictures of the Apollo Theater at night. It was so pretty.
My favorite place that I went to was the International Space Museum. There were so many cool exhibits! I decided that there were no virtual security guards, so I jumped on one of the exhibits and took a picture of my self. It was awesome!
I highly recommend that you go visit these places too!
Talk to ya later!
Caroline
Response:
Dear Caroline,
I have never been to Harlem, Mexico, or the International Space Museum in
real life. Where specifically did you go in Mexico? My sister has been to
Cancun and said it was pretty and clean, but when she went to Mexico City
it was the exact opposite. The International Space Museum sounded so fun
that I actually went to it, and it is as much fun as you described! In
Harlem at the Apollo Theater, were there any signs up saying when the next
preform date was? In Globe Theater there were notification signs all
around that had the upcoming dates of the performances. I am glad that
you are having as much fun in Second Life as I am!!! See you in class.
-Kat
BACK TO MY MAIN PAGE
Comments (3)
Joe Essid said
at 2:06 pm on Sep 22, 2009
Caroline,
Excellent idea about how to inform Kat differently from the others. After all, you've been places she has not.
As for the letter to the Core teacher, I wonder if Virtual Morocco does not already contain a "souk" or covered market, or residential section that looks like Mahfouz's "quarter"? If not, there are other Middle Eastern regions in SL to explore. One of them may have just the place. And for "The Fall of the House of Usher," you'll do exactly what you describe for Fountain and Tomb: compare the reading of the text to "living it" and maybe altering the outcome.
Joe Essid said
at 3:20 pm on Sep 22, 2009
By the way, I hope you don't mind that your reflection became our "poster child" in class today :)
emily.schworer@richmond.edu said
at 4:09 pm on Sep 22, 2009
Caroline,
I really am enjoying reading your paper. I have a few things that you may want to look at that I think will improve your paper.
First, in the letter to Courtney this sentence uses the word "we" a lot. "We get these avatars and we get to travel to where ever we want to go!" Maybe you could replace one of them with "our class".
In your letter to Kat you say there are "cool exhibits". Describing one of these would help the reader make a visual picture and understand why it was "cool"
That's all for now!
-Emily Schworer
Also, maybe you could go into a little more depth in the letter to Courtney when you say "Second Life is very similar to that! (The Sims)". How is it similar?
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