Besides having  better understanding of how SL places are “spatially distributed”, what caught my attention was that there was something called a “Destination Guide”. I managed to find it by scrolling to the bottom of the sidebar menu and click where it said:   “Looking for even more places to visit in Second Life? Check out the Destination Guide page”.

And so I did, and here is what I found:

It is a fantastic resource! The guide is organized into six categories: Learning, Hot Spots, Arts, Music, How To and Business. I browsed through the contents of the Learning Guide, and loved it! Of course, it’s not a complete list of all places, but you can always go back to the World Map and use the search engine to find the SLURL to places you know exist but don’t know where they are exactly.

I also found two fantastic blogs that write reviews of places to visit connected to education: Edumuve and Second Life Insider. To make the story short, after all these discoveries, I didn’t want to lose  the information so I bookmarked these sites so I could go back to the links and visit these places throughout the year. But thenI thought “Hey, why not share these discoveries?” And so I mashed all three feeds together and made them public through Google Reader, and here it is! A feed for all the places I’ve found so far, that I will continue to update with any other destinations I come across and tag. To get the feed, click here, and enjoy! Please comment if you’ve visited any of these places and have any recommendations.

I think this might be a very valuable tool for newbies who don’t find many things to do or places to go…in my case, for example, I am quite wary about just walking/flying around until I find something to do. That is why I like TLVW10 so much; the moderators have suggested so many cool places! We have plenty to choose from, and they are always a fantastic surprise.

Just for fun, I went to some of the places that had ongoing exhibits, etc. Here are my findings:

If you’re a Trekkie, visit the Star Trek Museum Complex. You can see what it’s about and find the SLURL to teleport by clicking here. You can also go HERE to see some of the picks I took on my visit, to give you an idea of what to expect.

If you know or want to learn German, visit the Goethe Institute and check out their inworld conversation sessions. The link to more information is here. They also have a very creative use of the space. There is a photography exhibit that is 3 floors high but has no stairs. I struggled until I remember we could fly!

Finally, for those who want something a bit more serious, you can visit the Exhibit on Human Trafficking on info island. There are documentaries and it is an eye-opening experience, at least in my opinion. The SLURL to teleport is here.

I have recently realized that it’s been over a year since I opened my Second Life account…it didn’t seem that long, and then it hit me: my classroom! Those are my first memories of “living” in SL. I don’t remember exactly how it happened (it is probably connected to EVO2009) but thanks to Kip Yellowjacket, I have a place to truly “landmark” home in Second Life. I haven’t used it much (2009 was a bit hectic for me, moving back home to Argentina and all) but anytime I go into SL, I know I have my own space, a place where I can have guests, meet with people and hang out as long as I please without feeling out of place. I also enjoy talking to my neighbours, who are also language teachers.

This year I’ve promised myself to become more involved in the Second Life English Community, to try to give back and collaborate with other SL teachers. As part of that, I’m going to try to visit at least one place in SL that could be used in language teaching every month (more if possible) and then blog about it in SLE’s Ning. I’ve already blogged about two of them: Better World Island and The Holocaust Museum. We’ll see how things went by the end of 2010.

Realizing that I feel a special connection to Second Life because I have my own classroom which I consider my home was quite a revelation to me, and it made me think: Where is your “home” in SL? Have you checked in your options? Do you use the command “teleport home”? I know I do when I start getting confused or I feel the place I’ve teleported to is a bit “freaky”. Have you chosen a place to teleport that you feel a connection with or you just teleport to different places every time? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…

The tour started at a recreation of the Kristallnacht of November 1938, and it was hosted by David Klevan, Education Manager for Technology and Distance Learning at USHMM, who did a fantastic job of walking us through each of the sections of the museum, and giving us not only background information but also advice on how to get the most out of our visit, by telling us where to go, which objects to touch, etc. I think without his guidance the tour would have not been as educational and interesting, especially because we could ask him questions about what we were seeing.

Two of the things that I liked the most about the visit were the effects that were included in the Synagogue as part of the narration and the visit to the hiding place which we couldn’t have found without our guide’s help. Below you can see pictures of both:

If you’re interested in visiting this place, you can teleport from here. For a list of online exhibits from the Holocaust Museum click here, and if you’d like to know what you can do to prevent genocide, please click here.