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Hello,
This is going to be a very selfish and self-centered blog, very much based on me, myself and I and my travels in Second Life. I'm doing a PhD on virtual learning environments and I want to find some in Second Life if I can.

I've just come from the University of Edinburgh virtual campus (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edinburgh%20East/104/106/25) - I was the only person there - but all I could find was a link to their website (http://www.man.ed.ac.uk/ug_study/prospective_students/) and a link to their blog (http://shalebing.blogspot.com/). Shale is not happy because (a) her words are being censored: "So I have now promised to keep saying on this blog that everything is hunky-dory and we love all the other schools developing on Vue" and (b) she "thought [she] had escaped the tedium of Second Life development" but clearly has not and (c) "To state the glaringly obvious, the Management School lost interest in Second Life because we (they?) could not see how it would actually support our teaching."

Crap. If they can't see a way then I am in trouble...

Notes on blog:
- "For Second Life to be useful in education it needs students to be able to access it, both from open-access computers in the uni and from their own computers."
- She has graphics card issues
- She calls it MUVE
- "When we roll-out Second Life for courses we will find out whether this is a problem or not."
- John Kirriemuir Eduserv report - Shale's comments: "the level of activity is less than one might expect, considering how fashionable SL is and how widely it is being adopted in US universities, and also that most activities are being driven by enthusiasts rather than adopted strategically by the institutions. The former may be due to the residual focus on the RAE and the second impression may be false because universities approaching SL strategically are developing areas in private, ready to launch them fully-formed on an unsuspecting World. John found evidence for this covert development in finding many of the SL spaces being developed blocked to public access."

So I find myself almost straight away looking up https://secure-web10.secondlife.com/community/support.php to get help... I'd love to know how to run and also how to retrieve SLURLs... I spot a link on courses running on SL right now - there are 55 of them!! I choose one. But it's just a video that you can watch anytime... Several are about using GIMP and photoshop for SL clothes etc... One on ESL... A Belgacom Island where they're looking for Master's graduates who "have a passion for telecommunication"... I come across "BDSM Class - Exploring BDSM"... I think it might be some sort of programming language but google it just in case (and just as well) first... something about PRIMS, I google it and I find the SL wiki http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims - that's pretty neat.

I decide to teleport... I decide to go to the first popular spot I can see on my map... It turns out to be "money machine island dance club". there are lots of people here. Why can't I walk and talk? Why can't I get the SLURL... the map tells me it's an unknown address... I feel very incapable and frustrated... maybe I'll sign out, go into college and read some papers... I listen to the music: .997 80s channel... This is bad. I look around. I start to feel underdressed. I grab a screenshot of the empty dance floor and the cages. Seriously. It's gambling. And free money. And slot machines... Dodge! I spot someone running. I must figure that out.