Week 6: More About Virtual Work

I consider myself a real virtual worker due to my self-motivation and ability to work with little or no supervision. I prefer virtual work over physical classroom or office work because I can be flexible and spend more time on projects, thus leading up to my goals of wanting to do a good job without rushing through something. Besides, working virtually creates a much easier commute than having to get in the car and drive 40 miles in one direction to work 9 hours a day. I was excited to read the articles about the rise of virtual employment and how more companies are creating remote jobs for workers.

There is also effective communication. Tools like Collaborate, Google Hangouts, email and Skype are available for contacting instructors and fellow students. Last night, my ePortfolio advisor held online office hours, and I visited with her on Collaborate to chat in real time. It was only done through audio, but I still felt like I was actually there with her rather than in my dorm room at SJSU. I like to view virtual employment as being in two places at once.

Week 5: Communication

What I found somewhat coincidental about this week is that we're discussing communication, and I just finished a competency essay for my ePortfolio which covered that topic. A lot of the tips in the articles this week were ones that I had already heard before, since I experienced a lot of it already in the SLIS program. Part of effective communication is responding promptly to your boss or coworkers about a project, or if you have a question that needs to be answered at that second, it's also a good idea to call.

Yesterday, I met with my mentor in Second Life for my internship, and she taught me how to build objects and add pictures to them. We communicated both through voice and chat, so we were on the same page, and I could send her an IM or ask her through audio if I was stuck. I'm also adding my progress on the Google Doc she created for me to write my hours down on, and I've been providing a brief outline to what I'm doing each day, even if I go into Second Life by myself. I consider myself a fast learner, so it didn't take me long to pick up on the building techniques and open up the proper window to add texture, rotate, stretch, etc. To test out my knowledge, I put up a picture of Catherine of Aragon (me) on the outside of my virtual house, using the building methods I was taught and a program called Jing to take a screenshot of the picture I wanted.

I had never heard of Jing before all this, but it was surprisingly easy to install and use. It just sits up in the corner of my computer screen doing nothing until I'm ready to use it.

Week 4: Time Management

Welcome to week 4 of my blog. For this unit, we are discussing time management, which has been my primary focus since starting the SLIS program. I've based my academic schedule around time management, because when I get my first career, I want to make sure I have the balance between work and me-time. I do a lot of extra-curricular activities, like swimming, bike riding, writing, playing Tetris, and spending time on my violin, and I do not want to give up any of those things for work. I have been keeping a Time Management Sheet, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet displaying different times of the day for me to fill in my daily activities, and I've filled in the times for things that I know for sure I will be doing this semester. The rest is up in the air. I have time set aside for swimming, meetings, and violin, and the rest is empty, which I can use towards schoolwork and what not.

As of right now, I've been going in and out of Second Life, adding furniture to my new house in Hampton Square, and teleporting to all the locations I visited with the LIBR 287 students in order to take snapshots of them for my virtual collection. It is a great thing to work on as I wait for the feedback to come in from my ePortfolio advisor, since I'm spending most of my time writing the essays for that. I'm supposed to write 14 competency essays by November 18, and so far, I've passed 3. I completed number 4 a couple days ago and sent my professor the link, and I'm waiting to hear back on it. My philosophy is "revise, revise, revise, until it's perfect."

Week 3: Virtual Internship Tips

This week looks interesting so far. I read 3 articles relating to virtual internships, and I was not surprised with some of the items that were listed, since I already knew quite a bit about virtual internships before starting this course. For example, I knew that it didn't require commuting; the only commute the student is expected to do is get out of bed and walk to the computer.

Virtual internships aren't for everyone, however; people who are more on the extroverted side recharge their energy from being around other people, so they would possibly crave the face-to-face contact from fellow interns, instructors, and other clientele. On the other hand, people who are more introverted, like me, recharge their energy from being alone, or spending time away from others for a while. I feel I have been able to motivate myself a lot easier by working from the comfort of my dorm room; it saves a lot of gasoline, time, and money, and like the articles stated, I can set my own hours and communicate with the site supervisor through email or Skype.

Experiences (So Far)

This week I learned about working in an entirely virtual environment such as Second Life, and I was fascinated with the variety of avatars and names each student had come up with. There was even an avatar that closely resembled my own!

The Living in Tudor Times is a really interesting course. I had my first meeting with Snow Scarmon on Saturday, and we walked around to different locations in SL that were beneficial to the course. From the worlds I visited, I'm getting a feeling for what to expect from the course and the project I'm currently working on.

Today I did some more research on the people connected to the House of Tudor, using Wikipedia as my primary source, and found out some fascinating information on them. I used the list provided by the instructor for week 1 and added my facts to it. Some of the pages had images of the people, and I wrote down the pixel size, the artist's name, the medium, and the date, if any of them were available. Other pages had no images, so I didn't have a source for them. I listed the link to the pages I had gotten my research from and entered it below each person's name.

I decided on my character name and residence for this week. I'm going to be Catherine of Aragon and live in Hampton Court.