Avatar Project – our activities

Avatar is a program to get young people interacting and working in the 3D environment of Teen Second Life. By bringing together people from many disparate parts of Melbourne we hope to facilitate social interaction and provide a fun learning environment.

Some of the activities that we run include the following;

Activity 1 – Exploring the Virtual Environment

You must visit three places in Second Life and complete a short review on each place.

Location, Name, Region, People Online, What is done there? What do you like? What don’t you like? Would you visit again? Include a snapshot of each place.

The first purpose of this exercise is to learn how to take pictures using the built in SL snapshot button. The second purpose of this exercise is to learn how to navigate around Second Life whilst both individually and collectively gaining more knowledge about what has been done and how people react to and use the various environments.

Activity 2 – Online Identities

In this activity we will learn how to upload a texture and apply it to an object, whilst exploring the differences and similarities between our online and real world personas.

You must take a photo of yourself in real life, as well as a snapshot of yourself in Second Life. You must then post these two images in your blog(or a word document) and write about the differences and similarities, and anything else you have observed or felt.

We then learn how to upload textures into the Second Life environment using your real life photo and how we can apply it to an object.

We take yet another snapshot of the two versions together.

Activity 3 – Creating T-Shirts

In this lesson we will be creating some t-shirts that can be worn, and given to friends within Second Life.

Download a free t-shirt template for photoshop (made by Robin Sojourner) from the following location.
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/RSWTShirtStart.html (Please note her terms which include donating to charity if you wish to sell the shirts.)

Open the template file in photoshop.
As can be seen below, it's a simple case of replacing the images and text with your own.

Possibilities include bands, art, sporting teams, and sayings. Try googling some suitable images or logos.The file can then be saved as a TGA if transparency is required, or a JPG if it is not (simpler for beginners). A more detailed explanation can be found here; http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/RSWTShirtLong1.html

Below are some examples;

Through engagement in Avatar we are wanting to facilitate people being involved in a larger community of people, meeting and interacting with people from different backgrounds and places.

 

Activity 4 – Avatar Time Capsule

At Avatar Island we have a great big time capsule wedged in the sand.

What object, in real life, would you place inside a time capsule to be opened in 100 years, in 2108?

Your task is to either find or create the object from real life in the Second Life environment, and place it inside the Avatar time capsule. You should write a notecard explaining why you chose that item, and place it along with a ‘notecard giver’ script inside your object, so visitors can find out about why what is in the capsule is there.