Auraria Island

Here's a brief pictorial tour of Auraria Island, North Georgia's home base in SL. If you have an SL account, you may also visit there directly at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Auraria/79/176/25/.

Language Cafe & Art Gallery

The Language Cafe provides a place for foreign language students to meet, pick up assignments, visit with native language speakers, etc.

Attached to the Language Cafe is the Art Gallery where both Real Life (RL) and Second Life (SL) artwork can be displayed.

Auraria Auditorium, Fishing Village, Mountain Top Discussion Area, & Hobo Lounge

Auraria Auditorium provides a large seating space for class meetings and/or presentations.

Towering above and behind the auditorium is the Mountain Top Discussion Area for small group discussions.

The nearby fishing village can be utilized for faculty office hours and assignment drop-off/pick-up points.

The Hobo Lounge, which skirts the east end of the fishing village provides an informal meeting space for small groups or classes.

CTLE Classroom

The CTLE classroom exhibits some of the tools available for educators in SL. Scripters have written programs to make interactive display screens that work much like a Powerpoint presenter and seats where a person can raise their hand.

Objects such as this Pollster allow presenters to ask questions and get immediate feedback where everyone can see the results.

Additional information and tools are readily available for educators as well as the ability to set up an "office" for SL office hours or to meet with other educators.

Workspaces

Some of North Georgia's faculty and staff have taken to the SL skies to create their own workspaces. One such place is the scripting workshop where scripts are written and tested before being put into use. Labeled boxes tell what kind of script is inside.

Game Park, Sandbox, and Underwater Exploration areas

The island provides several areas for students to hang out together or practice their SL skills. One of those is the Game Park which has several game tables and park benches and is lit up during the SL night with soft glow lights in the tree branches.

The Auraria Island sandbox is an open area in which students can practice 3D building and scripting in SL. Sometimes we hold SL orientation classes in the sandbox to give students a chance to practice their SL skills as they learn them.

What lies underneath could be quite a surprise! Students can explore the depths under the surface of the SL water from one corner of the island to the other via an underground waterway. And you might just run into Oscar, the island pet. But don't let his quiet gaze fool you.

The island is open to visitors and sometimes they leave their "mark."  Apparently some pirates tries to sail our seas and the only thing left of their ship after crashing on the rocks is their flag. But don't worry, if they come back, there is a cave you can hide in.

And speaking of caves, they too might be inhabited by creatures of the depths. Found this guy hiding in a deep recess but I don't think he's dangerous.

The New You

The curse of being a newbie is looking like a newbie. The island has a "freebie" store, The New You, on the south side of the island where students and faculty can quickly put on a new look, get vehicles, tools, etc., to give their Second Life a jump start.