Background Info

Well, where to begin? I guess at the beginning would make the most sense...

Early September 2007 - We attended a High School inservice at which a peculiar-sounding "thing" is mentioned; it is called "Second Life". The speaker described an environment in which cartoon-type characters called "avatars" are milling around buying, selling and trading clothing and other objects. Sounded a little bit goofy to most of us...

26th of September 2007 - Our Director of Educational Technology sent out an email describing NOAA's Meteora Island in Second Life. It said that users could fly through the eye of a hurricane and take a virtual submarine ride. It sounded interesting, so....

....later that day I pointed my browser to Second Life to check it out. Turned out that I needed to download free software, install it on the computer and was good to go. Once my Second Life account was created, I logged in and arrived at an Orientation Island.