How Did I Learn Today? (Suite - Yesterday, actually)

Yesterday, I tried a learning experiment.
I created an avatar and entered Second Life (SL) for the first time.
Above is my first snapshot in SL.

The day before I had watched a video from the K12 Online Conference, explaining how new users are oriented to Second Life. Orientation in Second Life. (I don't think I finished watching the vid, because I had to go out for parking lot duty, and once I returned it was Friday after school, so I wanted to depart.) The last part of the presentation was about a graduate student's project trying to create a better orientation system for new users. From his part of the presentation alone, I learned how to move my avatar once I was in SL.

Once I had my avatar created, I ended up rejecting the idea that I had to go to orientation at all, and went to the destination I sought. It was an educational island, so on the weekend no one was there except myself. How did I learn?

• I used trial and error. 
• I explored anything that looked interesting to me. 
• I went wherever I wanted to go. 
• I took my time. 
• I tried whatever I wanted to try.

I can report that my learning experience was a good one. I was able to play 2 videos (both human and avatar characters explaining various features of the island), change my clothes when freebies were offered (just after my accidental plunge in the ocean, I suspect), explore 4 different areas on this island, experience both rain and snow, take several snapshots of my avatar, walk, sit, talk (still learning about this aspect), teleport, and fly!

I have more to learn on my next visit, but I feel properly oriented, and ready, now, to interact with others when I encounter them.

How Did I Learn Today?

Yet another fruitful line of inquiry is this - how do I myself learn?

How did I learn today?

1) I went to the K12 Online Conference blog and found an archived presentation that sounded interesting. I viewed it on Elluminate, and listened to the VoiceThread responses that followed... Scott McLeod's presentation on leadership being ill-prepared to cope with disruptive innovations
2) I downloaded to my Kindle an electronic sample of a book Scott mentioned, Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation WILL Change the Way the World Learns
3) I logged into the Great Conversation Ning and found out that I had missed the first Paideia seminar in Second Life!
4) I read the seminar text, Kurt Vonnegut's EPICAC
5) I Check out the archived USTREAM at www.bookosphere.net/ and the photos here in the Ning.
6) I logged in late to Classroom 2.0 Live Talking K12Online, but was able to listen to the after-talk discussion. I familiarized myself with Elluminate features since I had not really used this before. 
7) I finished reading an eBook I had previously downloaded, Curtis Bonk's The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education. I had just seen that Curtis Bonk will be on Classroom 2.0 Live  this coming Thursday night.
8) I copied several events from Classroom 2.0 Live calendar onto my Google calendar to which I have a link on my professional learning community's wiki to help inform my group members about learning opportunities.
9) I read new blog posts via my feeds in Bloglines.
10) I blogged. This is my first attempt at blogging, and I am still learning!


I guess that's it. None of this was in a traditional classroom. I paid no tuition. I will receive absolutely no credit for my learning today.
What about you? How did you learn today?