Second Life

My initial experience with Second Life was not a great one. Confusion, frustration and anxiety are just a few words I can use to describe the experience. Like most things, it took some investigating and getting used to. I am proud to report that I have become a fan of Second Life for social networking. Can Second Life be used in the classroom? Yes it can, for those students who 1) are visually able, have fine motor control, and can physically and mentally attend for long periods of time. Second Life is beyond a doubt, a social networking tool and definitely not a tool one might use to teach an eight year old a lesson on how 1 plus 1 equals 2. My concentration is early childhood education and unfortunately I give Second Life, a PG-13 rating. Since the average user is male and 39 years of age, it is simply not the place for children in this day and age. Conversely, Second Life could expose the hearing impaired or physically disabled young adult/adult who might not normally socialize with his or her peers outright, to the virtual world where their disability does not hinder his or her ability and does not influence how others react to and treat them. Second Life guarantees anonymity and affords the disabled the opportunity to exist in a virtual world where they can escape their reality for a time. This can be a truly liberating experience for them and anyone else seeking a little "freedom".




I found some interesting press on Second Life in the New York Times recently. SL is definitely being used in different ways.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=second%20life&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/fashion/22Avatar.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=second%20life&st=cse.

Ergonomics

So in addition to being old school, I must confess, I haven't taken the time to make my work station "work" for me. I am not a teacher but like teachers in an effort to get the job done, i.e., address immediate issues at hand -- possibly calming a child down, putting out fires and basically trying to get some work done -- much time is not spent on meeting the needs of the child or in this case the worker. With close scrutiny, you can see that my desk is about 30% ergonomically correct. Check! My computer is positioned centrally and directly in front of me. The keyboard is located under the desk for proper allignment between my arms and legs. Another check! It goes downhill from this point. Halfway through the day my throbbing and numb right wrist reminds me of where my work station falls short. My keyboard rest, does not tilt down parallel with my forearms and lap but rests about an inch above my lap. Often times is rests directly on my lap. There isn't much space between my desk and chair. If there were I might be able to position my keyboard and mouse better to east some of the strain I feel in my wrists. Also, speaking of mice, I sit nestled into the corner of my desk because I share a cubicle with a co-worker. I often have to manuever my mouse back and forth because, 1) the keyboard is not long enough to hold both a keyboard and mouse and 2) my chair fits snuggly in the right corner of the desk. NOT an ideal position to sit for hours typing.

Part of the problem with creating ergonomic work stations may stem from a) budgetary constraints and/or b) not knowing that a keyboard should be placed parallel to hands and legs or that a computer screen should be placed centered, directly in front of you. This is sad but true. It costs money to make a work station truly ergonomic or at least a reorganization of entire office spaces.

Online Bookmarking

So I'm old school. I'm new to the whole social bookmarking scene. Yes, I'm one of those people who still has about 100 or so favorites saved within a dozen folders. After about 2 minutes I can find what I'm looking for. Is that a bad thing? Since I use two or three different computers in a day - my personal computer, my work computer and a computer in the library at school - I could probably benefit from a bookmarking tool that saves my favorites centrally so that I could pull them up at any machine. I decided to give two tools a try...delicious and stumbleupon. I will put them to the test. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: So I'm digging Stumbleupon. It definitely makes it much easier to access my favorites no matter what computer I happen to be working on. It's worth noting that I can "poach" other people's favorites by doing a simple search according to my interest. The same can be true of my favorite sites. That's the whole idea of social networking, right?