Learning By Futzing Around

Since this is the first posting in my new blog, I figured I may as well start off by saying that mostly what you'll read about here are some of the funny things that happen as I attempt to figure out how to learn various kinds of new/emerging technologies--mostly things that are educationally oriented but not always. Most of the time, I learn by making the dumbest mistakes imaginable. I choose to look at this in a positive light, and have dubbed the process "LBFA" (Learning By Futzing Around). I heartily recommend it. I figured a blog would be a good way to share what I'm learning, and make people laugh--two pretty good goals from my POV.

Lately, I have been learning how to make my way around in Second Life, which has been getting a lot of play lately on TV shows like The Office and CSI. In a nutshell, "SL" is a 3D virtual world--but it's not a game (although it could certainly be used to play various kinds of games). It's more of a virtual social space--somewhere you can go to meet and converse with people from all over the world, see incredible sites that other users have built (like a replica of the Sistene Chapel, art galleries, and lots of other wonderful places), and learn to build objects and script them so they can be used for a wide variety of different activities (more on this later). Second Life can be quite intimidating, but dealing with risk, newness, and "not knowing" is also part of any learning curve. This blog will be about my learning curves--in Second Life, Real Life, and everywhere else. I hope you enjoy it.