Scripting!

Now that I have your attention! =)

Pleading for Scripting Classes! If you are not an Instructor yet and would consider teaching a few Scripting Classes please IM or email me!

If your already are an Instructor and willing then please by all means don't let me hold you back, I will give you a cookie too! =)

I could cram all my knowledge about scripting in about a 5 minute class hehehe

I can do a basic scripting class next Wednesday, I'll put it on my calendar.

Char,

I currently teach AES-101, Fundamentals of Scripting. As part of AE University, I have whole lines of scripting courses planned that build on each other.

I do charge a minimal fee for my courses, but i could wave those if LL reimb it (its to pay for the land fees and of course i have the right to earn from sharing knowledge the same way folks do who run casino's and discos)

Also, im not an offical Instructor yet, hehe, cause im only 20 days old.

My 200 series will be coming online this week, specific courses on varying topics.

But let me know

Char IMHO this would be a conflict of interest - please no special arrangements with fee based Universities.

Mentors and Instructors are volunteers - we don't charge fees for our time and efforts and have clearly defined roles as volunteers.

Let's keep fee based education and Instructors and Mentor roles separate and honor the long standing tradition of Free Education in Second Life.

Merwan, if he's becomes an official Instructor he will be reimbursed by Char L$500 per class. I'm sure this would be more than adequate compensation. The problem here is that he's only 20 days old, and you must be 30 to become a Mentor or Instructor.

Currently I offer two courses that are free, fundamentals courses. They are well recieved and appreciated, and I have more coming on line.

Merwin, where does the conflict of interest lie? Who is conflicted? My basic scripting course is VERY well liked by those without any scripting skills, you don't even come out of it having made a script. You come out of it able to read scripts, which is more important.

But I am curious where the conflict of interest lies? LL Pays mentors and intructors 750 a class when done on Linden land. Isnt that a conflict of interest? I cant even get that, if I do a class on LL, and I do, I get 500. So your making more than me when you do a class there, but again, we are providing a service that enhances LL's business, for them to offer us kickback is perfectly acceptable.

Lots of folks want everything to be free and given to them for no cost.

But by taking my courses, they are then able to go out and use the knowledge they received to make all the linden they can from the ideas they bring to market using the new skills they learned.

I am a professional curriculum developer, instructor, and nice guy. Im not trying to weasel the system, just observing it.

We do not recieve 750L$ per class or event. It's 500L$. Also we use guidelines set up by LL . I use the guidlines, for the most part and my experience of almost 7 months. The classes I teach that arent covered by any guidlines come from my experience with those subjects. Yes, the people I have taught do, and have, left with the ability to go out and earn. This isnt the reason I teach classes, and would continue to do so without any reimbersment, I do it for the pure joy of hearing from people how much they have learned in the clasases

Hear hear, Toy! I don't know if you know this, Arch, but you must hold classes supported by LL at the Oak Grove Instructor Class area. So there's no land fees associated with it.

So getting paid to do something you learn to do is an anathma to you?

Most of us dream about getting to do jobs where we also get paid to do it.

My point is this:

1) Mentors and Teachers already get paid. You get paid 100 per student if only 5, or 25 per student if 20, but you do get paid to teach.

2) The fact that you do it just because you love to do it is wonderful, so do I. I have pretty good coding skills, and could have chosen to start with anything else in SL, but I chose teaching, cause I love it. That does not mean though that I should fall on my sword for the effort.

I love teaching. I hold me classes even if there is only one student, they just get a nicer teacher to student ratio.

Char was asking for folks about scripting classes. I teach them. I have had extremely positive feedback from them, and heard reports of other classes where folks leave without having learned anything but how to make one script.

So I offered, I also asked about compensation. its fair.

Pro atheletes get paid millions of dollars while teachers have to live near the poverty line. Something is seriously messed up there.

SL equivelent? Club Owners and Sex related shops make tons of linden, while those who teach them the skills they need to do it feel grateful to be able to do so for no pay?

Take pride in being a teacher if your a good one, rightly so. But also value your worth accordingly. Sharing knowledge is a pure joy, but isnt it so much nicer when that which we enjoy pays our land fees or other expences?

EVEN if i teach at Oak Grove, I still had land fees I must pay, and the time spent teaching at Oak Grove could have been spent doing somthing to earn Linden.

Now, for those who just want to enjoy SL without encurring any expenses, more power to them, this is how I enjoy SL, by setting up a University and offering professional courses from them to take people from no knowledge on a subject, to the point where they can contribute anything they dream up.

My 0.02

(PS, anyone can get 500 for teaching by having it be an event at Stage 4 or Oak Grove. Doesnt require being a mentor or instructor, per the event rules.)

Hi Arch I just wasn't sure if you understood the rules (we can't teach a Linden-supported class on our own land), not trying to rile anyone up So if you were counting on dwell and the Linden support money it doesn't work that way. There's nothing in the rules that says you can't run Instructor classes AND your own, non-supported classes, however -- just the LL-supported ones have to be held at Oak Grove.

In 1st Life I do get paid well for what I do and expect it. The difference to me in 2nd Life I consider it an entertainment expense. Yes, expense, only if I played 24/7 I could maybe, just maybe, pay my tier fees but I seriously doubt it since I own approximately 1/3 of a sim.
Arc, Im not fighting with you and would like to attend one of your classes sometime. Im just trying to point out that experience in any thing is a very strong point

PS. if you hold an event on Linden Land and qualify for the 500L$ that is to help offset the prizes or whatever, its not to be considered a payment to the one holding the event

Toy, go reread the events rules, maybe its changed since you last did, (it is edited today, but this has been in effect for a while)

You get 250L for organizing the event. If the event is in the sports sim, the vehical sim, or stage 4, you get an extra 250L for organizing. That is in addition to up to 500L for prize money if it is a contest.

(not arguing either, folks just have different opinions on things. Myself i tend to take offense when people type tyings that I PERCEIVE (hehe, the bane of all text communication) as trying to make me feel bad about making money for teachign others.

You may be right about the 750L$ but for SL-Mentor and Instructor events it's 500L$ since those are the only events I have ever done

I applaude you wanting to teach in SL. I dont remember making any percieved comments, only stated my own opinions and feelings. If someone wishes to make money teaching in SL I welcome them. My own feelings are once I start making the money be a determining factor in SL the fun stops and the job begins. I enjoy SL so much and always to remain entertainment, not a job

Nod Toy, if it comes to the point im worried too much about the almighty Linden (hehe) ill be there too, but for now, I use my income as a sort of scorecard, to judge the effectiveness of my efforts in a concrete data form. (just that sort of person)

Others judge it by how many IM's they get per min on login <grin>

Arch, Im serious about attending one of your classes soon Not as a student, just as an observer, perhaps for no charge?? hehehe

Hehe, I should be doing AEB-010 this afternoon, Basic Economy, but thats not one of my full courses.

My 000 level courses are fundamentals I teach for donations (though you really want to beat people who donate 1 or 5, whats that 1/100th of a cent, just dont donate, hehe).

Currently I teach:
AEB-010 Basic Economics in SL
AEB-020 Land Fundamentals in SL

AEC-101 Understanding 3D Space
AES-101 Scripting Fundamentals, learning to read a script

Coming soon are the 200 series in Scripting and AEC

I just got my own little 8K island i moved my university to, nicer location, 90% surrounded by protected water, no noisy neighbors, new sim, im happy

Oh, but my 100 series is on pause for a couple mroe days while i finish my Texas Hold-Em poker table. Should be testing a live game of it tonight.

So it will be a nice trickle in income (house gets 5% of pot, so nothing big, but nice) and the fact that SL needs multiplayer games besides bingo Esp card games.

Char, I would be more willing to teach if:

- I had some actual spare time. The world is so big these days, and I have so many customers, I'm having trouble finding time for myself, let alone time to donate.

- L$500 / hour was not ridiculous compared to the rates I command from regular players, not to mention RL work.

- I could restrict class attendance to a certain number of people in order to improve each person's experience.

- There was more than one teacher per class to help spread the load.

- People would realize that I'm not an LL employee or anything like that, and that when I'm not teaching I am not available to do their scripts for them.

- It takes a special person to understand programming, and not everyone can do it, and it's not a shame if you just give up.

- LL worried about making their scripting language more usable and less similar to RL programming.

- I could teach as often as I wanted and for as long as I wanted.

Look, I like teaching, but an intelligent person would need at least 25 hours spread over 1 month to get a basic grasp of scripting.
The not-so-intelligent people that tend to show up in basic scripting classes would need one heck of a lot more.
I was once hired to tutor a really shallow 17-year old girl. It was a nightmare, but at least I was getting paid. She didn't learn much... since, like the people who "want" to learn scripting, she had no interest in doing homework or trying anything out by herself. She had no drive, no power of initiative.
I suggest that you either massively revamp the instructor program to be more like a RL school, or hire someone for real money to do the instructing.

Scripting is no doubt a challenge to teach and I am sure is the leading reason why there are not many scripting classes. I do however think that there is an effective way to teach bits and pieces of scripting in a class, I've seen it done. =) It's true not everyone in a class might understand everything being taught but with a little structure, patience and understanding a few might just walk away from the class totally thankful.

Those of you instructors and mentors that might feel overwhelmed with after class-event questions by all means its ok to say sorry you are in the middle of something right now you will try to get back to them later. =)


Tip for the teachers...

When someone asks a totally unrelated question its ok to steer them back on track or tell them that will be in another class sometime (hey its possible).

Always the nice and smiley one
I wish there was an easy way for a mentor/instructor to take on a small team ofn up to 5 noobies that actually want to take the time to learn and attend several classes in a row, at a preset time.
I could code an enrollment system to support this teaching model if anyone out there is interested.

I haven't attended a class in forever, has the incidence of event/instructor griefing gone down?

I stopped going when the smoke clouds and fly-by push-gunners began to dominate the classes. I'd love to know that this has changed.

Secrets to happy class attendance / instructing!

1. Turn off particles (set particle count to 0). No more smoke!

2. Sit on something. You can't be pushed if you're sitting. As an Instructor, we tend to want to be standing, so script a platform to stand on to set the sit animation to the stand animation Instruct your students to sit down while they work. The benches are there for a reason!

3. Use the ignore feature and encourage your class to do the same.

4. REPORT ABUSE! Don't just say "oh, well they are new they don't know any better"... REPORT THEM! Letting troublemakers get away with it just spawns more trouble. Report the little underaged and/or undermatured freaks Encourage EVERYONE in your class to do the same. The more people that report someone as abusive the more likely serious action will be taken.

5. Collect everyone's cards at the beginning and put everyone's cards in a folder. Then right click the folder and choose "Instant Message Online Users". Then just hold the class in IM. Make sure you tell your students you're doing this. People in SL tend to close out weird group IM's (*cough* come to my club!!! wooooooooooot!!!! */cough*)

Char, I have anoticed the lack of Scripting classes lately and thought it was time to hold some myself. The only problem (which has been around since I started SL) is- Am I allowed to hold a Instructor class in non liason hours? Back a few months ago (before the massive influx of players) I held a mentor event 'out of hours' and didn't get many people attending. I don't think that would be the case now though since there are so many more residents now.

So if it's ok I'll be holding some out of hours this week (I'll try to IM you about it).

Eggy-- I'd totally be up to dual teacher classes. It sure helps answer questions and keep the flow of the class. Also your comment- I'd love for this to become a reality! Back when I started I left Scripting 101 wanting more, but there wasn't anything available. This would help those who like me didn't have programing experience before LSL and want to learn all there is about it rather than being limited to the wiki (though it's great it's no tutorial) and examinin gother people's scripts.

Oh and Taun when did you become an Instuctor? That's awesome . hehe *hugs*

Edit- Actually I don't think I'll be able to teach any classes until I can turn off Live Help for it's duration, but that's in the works so hopefully soon .

Any hours are ok. =) Please make sure at least 5 in attendence (besides yourself) for $L support. Thank you and looking forward to it!