Second intro session, April 23

Our second intro session last Saturday was if anything more successful than the first, even given the initial logistical glitches such as the campus being officially closed for Easter and the very grumpy security guard showing his displeasure at having to open up the lab and lifts for our group (even though we had booked). Of particular note was:

- signs of communication and interaction between participants, especially some with whom we've worked before and for whom this was a first;

- Trish's excellent coordination and support work with the parents

We're on track now to run the first weekly sessions on a Wed or Thurs afternoon after school, starting the second week of May.

Here are some photos that Dale took:

Images from our first session

Some images from our first session.

One of our teen mentors doing some 3d design.

One participant exploring Second Life.

A couple of the mentors and a couple of participants.

One participant playing a flash game.

An overview of the room used, it's 16 floors up on Flinders St.

First introductory session, 16 April - some observations

Set in the relatively slick surrounds of the gaming lab at VU's Flinders St campus, our first session is underway as I write. So far, so good - participants seem to be engaged with a variety of technologies: Second life (for the building of avatars and environments), Spore, Minecraft (a new discovery...kind of a cross between a first person game and a virtual world involving mining, costs $15 to buy and install on a server - thanks Sean for installing it), Crayon Physics, Flash games - and in one case, looking at the bones of the technical setup of the lab including shared drives, registry keys etc.

Almost everyone showed up bar one (and a couple of Gippslanders who will be coming next week)

We have five paid mentors in the room - Dale, Craig, Justin, Sean and Tung - plus Nathan as a peer mentor.


The mood is quiet, calm, and positive, with everyone seemingly into what they're doing and quite a bit of discussion between participants, mentors and parents.