Reflections on Days 1 and 2

Things I have learned that might be of help to another school district or consortium trying to share an island.

1.
Terraforming land is easy, once you know how to do it. (Read the Knowledge Base!) Of course, as one who ALWAYS consults the Second Life Knowledge Base, I made the mistake yesterday of editing the terrain of the island, much of which was way underwater, by "raising land" piece by piece. Do not do it this way! There is a simple way to get most of it done quickly and then tweak it to your specific needs.

2.
We have four school districts on the island, each of which wants (and needs) to be able to control their own parcel of land and objects on the land. For example, if one district is having a professional development session that is closed to everyone else, they want to be able to allow access only to their teachers. This is all done through the creation of multiple groups and some new roles within the groups.

I am the estate owner, which makes me all-powerful, so it was hard for me to try out the permissions I was granting. Thanks to Majen Hammond (Pia Klaar SL) and Beth Knittle (Beth Kohnke SL) for working with me on the testing. I have created 5 groups, one for each of the school districts and one for the on-island sandbox where our teachers can learn to build. I am the owner of all 5 groups, and have created a teeny bit lesser role, called Tech Director, which gives each district at least one super-user to set permissions, return items, manage the parcel access and ban lists, and more. We will see if this set-up works. I have to keep activating the specific group when I want to move something across parcel lines so I guess I did it right!

One tip for those of you who may be thinking of doing something like this. I left the outside edge and along the walkways, between the parcels, as part of the original estate. This greatly helps when I need to place something for the good of all in the common areas.

3. I have learned as much new stuff in the past two days as I have in the four months I have been in Second Life. This island adventure is not to be taken lightly!

Please come visit:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lighthouse%20Learning%20Island/6/134/24

All professional development opportunities, come September, will be posted as notices in the "K-12 Educators" group in SL, so please join that group if you are interested!

Here is quick photo thus far:

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Kathy Schrock |
Lighthouse Learning Island |
Nauset Public Schools |
Barnstable Public Schools |
Plymouth Public Schools |
Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District