NMC Campus Observer

The Buzz is Back!

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Jan 7, 2008 11:54pm

The NMC Campus Teachers Buzz sessions took a holiday break last month (we have word they were spotted causing trouble on a beach in the Carribean) but returned today with a great meetup on NMC Orientation to talk about improving the experience for new (and not so new) SL users.

We meet at the sim’s landing point, halfway between the basic (5 minute quick) orientation, and the longer, more in-depth orientation in the area that looks like the mission district. I did a fast song and dance overview of our use of the RegistrationAPI to create our own account creation form for new accounts, that sends the brand new shiny avatars to this Orientation, rather than the rather wild and weird one among the General Population.

Then, for 30 minutes, we scattered the participants to the different parts of NMC Orientation to explore, and we met up for some closing comments at the Waterside Cafe.

Like always, we get some great ideas when we just open things up to conversation. We got a lot of suggestions to improve the Orientations, Fleep got some ideas how to deal with her “10 minute” Sl demo, and some of us learned how to levitate.

Much of this is captured in the comments of the chat log, available as plain text or rich text. Highlights include:

• From teachers who used this Orientation, they really like the look and feel of the San Francisco based design.
• Suggested increasing font size on signs and some displays as most new users dont have good use of camera control.
• Some of the objects on the Pier of Culture did not respond to mouse click.
• Reports of new users falling off of ramps, walkways, the street that leads to the Golden Gate Bridge- suggest railings it even invisible prims to keep people on a particular “path”.
• Some felt there were too many choices, paths…
• Probably the most emphatic response was when we suggested having people here as “docents” like ISTE and InfoIsland do, and.or create a mentor program to bring in people with some expertise to connect with those that need it.

Stay tuned for the next NMC Campus Teachers Buzz when we ride the SaLamander project!

Story filed under: Teacher's Buzz

See all stories by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine)