tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47471783179528540672024-03-05T05:14:10.721-08:00From Berlin to My ClassroomJanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-69735849106316700422014-07-01T18:19:00.003-07:002014-07-01T18:19:52.901-07:00A Tour Around the 1920s Berlin Project: Part 1One thing that is truly wonderful about the 1920s Berlin Project in Second Life is the realism that is pursued there. As Augusta found out when she first arrived in Berlin, the sim is set up into different districts, and set up to represent life in the era as realistically as possible. The residents have all kinds of products and services available in Berlin, and depending on your status there, what you might have to do for yourself would vary. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Outside of the laundry owned by Jacob Cohen and Son.</td></tr>
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Even though washing clothes is not really needed in a virtual world, it would have been necessary in a Berlin neighborhood, especially one that was inhabited by the working classes.<br />
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Our virutal tour of the 1920s Berlin Project will start at the laundromat, which is located across the Steinpforte from the Keller. <br />
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One thing that the students I teach are mystified by is the fact that you actually had to <i>do</i> things that today are done by machines. Ask them how their <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Washboard</td></tr>
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It begins with a water and laundry detergent. After getting the clothing wet, the laundry is then soaped, with stains being scrubbed out on the washboard, which is behind Augusta in the picture. The washboard is a wavy piece of metal set inside a wooden frame that you hold into the bucket. Then, the laundry is scrubbed against it as vigorously as necessary in order to scrub out the dirt. It means using what used to be called "elbow grease" to get the stains out. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mangle</td></tr>
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The next part involves rinsing the soap out of the clothes. The Cohen and Son laundry has a pair of sinks that can be used for this, but it also has a device that will let you rinse the clothes, and then "mangle" the rinse water out. Augusta is looking at the mangle, which uses a crank to squeeze the laundry through two rotating cylinders. A smart laundress would probably put the clothes through the mangle more than once to make sure they are as dry as possible.<br />
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All of these different steps in the washing process is accomplished today with the washing machine, which agitates the dirt out of the clothing and then spins out the excess water after the machine rinses the laundry.<br />
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Now Augusta's clothing is washed, but needs to be hauled back home to dry on a line or to be dried with an iron. The washing process could damage the clothes with heavy detergents like those advertised outside of the laundry. The mangle alone could break buttons or tear them off, not to mention setting in wrinkles! And there were no wrinkle-free fabrics back in the 1920s either. Synthetic rayon was available in the early part of the century, but the big advancements in synthetics did not occur until the 1930s. <br />
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So how could I use this in my classroom? By investigating the 1920s Berlin Project, students of today could learn much more about communities of the past. Students could use the Jacob Cohen und Sohn Waescherei to recreate the time involved in washing one basket of laundry. Students could be asked to research different household tasks and compare and contrast them over time: How long would it take Augusta to figure out how to use the equipment, and how is the same work accomplished today? It would allow students to investigate how the Industrial Revolution led to innovations that provided homemakers and domestic workers with time-saving appliances that made necessary work, like laundry, easier and less labor intensive. Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-4148665669977123372014-06-03T15:18:00.004-07:002014-06-03T15:20:58.041-07:00Literary Learning: Die BuchgemeinschaftI joined a free online course today, sponsored by FutureLearn through the University of Sheffield. Since school will be out (not-so) soon, and since the title of the course -- <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/country-house-literature?utm_campaign=Share+Links&utm_medium=futurelearn-just_enrolled&utm_source=email" target="_blank">Literature of the English Country House</a> -- intrigued me, I registered. We will be reading selections from different authors, including Jane Austen, my absolute most personal favourite writer. (The "u" is intentional by the way!) If you've never tried a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) before, I can highly recommend them. <br />
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I realized that our Berlin community already does the same kind of thing on a regular basis, albeit with a smaller group. It is a marvelous way to understand OUR community content. It can be fiction. It can be non-fiction. It can even be in the form of a graphic novel. Reading (and reading voraciously) about a topic can give anyone a better sense of the era under study.<br />
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The Berlin <i>Buchgemeinschaft</i> (book club) started after a discussion at the Keller one evening. Someone, and I really can't remember who it was, mentioned something about Christopher Isherwood and how much his work seemed to fit our sim in Second Life. A number of us had not heard of Isherwood, and the idea of having a book club type group was born. We would read the selection and then meet in a month to discuss it. Zoe Foodiboo, who is the Berlin librarian, set it all up through goodreads, and we haven't looked back. She has now been joined by Webspelunker Ghostraven, who has added his skills as a moderator to our discussions.<br />
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The "rules" are that we select from books that were published in the Weimar era, or that they are contemporary books about Weimar Germany. We have read a wide variety of books, from poetry to academia, but I think a few need to be mentioned in particular. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-b1-QnrST7BWwgsCJIDi1qZY7f2_Si-UmsKkb_mePJ2sVyhR-dGlKcP2D871rz2hJV5hcVd14GNhgd9HCt_jHVQW19HfYv2AClYJACWMUiNtDU6V680ZTOrkEJQCqhhma4RKgv08gzQ/s1600/Berlin+Stories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6-b1-QnrST7BWwgsCJIDi1qZY7f2_Si-UmsKkb_mePJ2sVyhR-dGlKcP2D871rz2hJV5hcVd14GNhgd9HCt_jHVQW19HfYv2AClYJACWMUiNtDU6V680ZTOrkEJQCqhhma4RKgv08gzQ/s1600/Berlin+Stories.jpg" /></a>The very first work that the <i>Buchgemeinschaft </i>read is a classic, but one that I had never heard of. At least I didn't think I had heard of it! We started with Christopher Isherwood's collection of stories that have been published at <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Berlin Stories</i>. It was a mix of wonderful storytelling (you'll recognize where <i style="font-weight: bold;">Caberet</i> comes from) as well as first-person insight into the emerging Nazi regime. Between the lines is the story of a gay young man weaving his way in the shadows of Berlin, which is an aspect of Berlin culture that is integral to the reality of Interwar Berlin. Isherwood isn't, to my mind, obvious about it, but if you are looking for it, you'll find our Eldorado Club in his writing. I was struck how he also touched upon the plight of Jews in Berlin, as well as tensions between the ascendant Nazi Party and the opposition socialists.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHuic2LQ8Qtpsw0SekmJvs-QJFmRr-9EZwlR1PnoRqTESkZwQ9t3p8BoAqKITFwJ_v2R2YoWOvp7yAOai1MjoDh62Db14V1Ev35FyQ8OpX2FmysIUna5DOG8zDrWRvqubtD1PCEJjLGU/s1600/All+Quiet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBHuic2LQ8Qtpsw0SekmJvs-QJFmRr-9EZwlR1PnoRqTESkZwQ9t3p8BoAqKITFwJ_v2R2YoWOvp7yAOai1MjoDh62Db14V1Ev35FyQ8OpX2FmysIUna5DOG8zDrWRvqubtD1PCEJjLGU/s1600/All+Quiet.jpg" /></a>Another selection was one that is well-known to most. I had not actually read the book in years, but I show the 1930 film version of Erich Maria Remarque's masterpiece <i style="font-weight: bold;">All Quiet on the Western Front</i> in my classroom. I have a dialogue guide that I found online that I give my students as we watch the film, which keeps fairly close to Remarque's story. It's an old black and white film, and it takes the students in my 12th grade "Twentieth Century Topics" classes to get into it, but this film turns into a rich and meaningful viewing experience for them on many different levels. Told from the point of view of a German from the "Slaughter of the Innocents" stage of the war, both the book and the film are a powerful anti-war message. The discussion generally leads to the question of how soldiers who did survive Remarque's experience would have reacted to the instability of the Weimar period. (How I wish I could get the English department to work on an interdisciplinary unit for this classic piece of literature!)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaQjvYju8HUDXJEFRkg0_H3gDUQ4c_5dV40W2KJXlIqfEzpQJjjlR1r0JH0gSwg4Ab6znSABcnQSiqG4DlAqPXvHLkETpYj6rMbE1E0H7dSkpG3ncTnoy8yfgUp1R1B-3MYKiJKTCYOM/s1600/Artificial+Silk+Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDaQjvYju8HUDXJEFRkg0_H3gDUQ4c_5dV40W2KJXlIqfEzpQJjjlR1r0JH0gSwg4Ab6znSABcnQSiqG4DlAqPXvHLkETpYj6rMbE1E0H7dSkpG3ncTnoy8yfgUp1R1B-3MYKiJKTCYOM/s1600/Artificial+Silk+Girl.jpg" /></a>Other works are include novelized accounts (<i style="font-weight: bold;">In the Garden of Beasts</i> by Erik Larsen) or collections of articles (<i style="font-weight: bold;">What I Saw</i> by Joseph Roth), both of which vividly depict Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s. A relatively unknown work was one that totally resonated with me, as it is a story about a girl who runs away to Berlin. Written by Irmgard Keun, <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Artificial Silk Girl</i> was a work that the Nazis took on to actually destroy once they got power as it showed a side of Berlin culture that was in total opposition to their vision of women's roles and morality. Although we have not read it as part of the <i>Buchgemeinschaft</i>, Keun's book <i style="font-weight: bold;">After Midnight</i> touches on similar themes of how regular Germans tried to make sense of and survive in the chaos of much of this era. I could see glimpses of some of our 1920s Berlin girls in Doris, the main character of this work!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb0Ln5SgVqmh86qN7LqGGiEQ7jkY5LBI5XtMNqL5mH9rtInrP38qjhU3ArIotw8euvXnnk1sdXdBs-Na5iMNFuy-tazT66jjsGatRhve3GVt1MTKnovnce_xxEIuwC-NtKHcv8gAxrLlw/s1600/Sun+Also+Rises.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb0Ln5SgVqmh86qN7LqGGiEQ7jkY5LBI5XtMNqL5mH9rtInrP38qjhU3ArIotw8euvXnnk1sdXdBs-Na5iMNFuy-tazT66jjsGatRhve3GVt1MTKnovnce_xxEIuwC-NtKHcv8gAxrLlw/s1600/Sun+Also+Rises.jpg" /></a>Some of our selections are from the time period, but not from Berlin, although they may have been read there in translation. This would include Fitzgerald's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Great Gatsby</i>, Faulkner's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Sound and the Fury</i>, Maugham's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Painted Veil</i>, and a few others. I think my favorite from this category was Hemingway's <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Sun Also Rises</i>. The characters were more like the people in our 1920s Berlin sim, but without the bulls. Because of my time with Augusta in Berlin, it was easier for me to understand their motivations and made the book much more meaningful. I had greater insight into how people that Hemingway portrayed might have felt and behaved than I would have otherwise.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvkePogHDZ7OVIDodRFdgd0ePd5D5hgTvn2nQeX1iMGWev_mopvQUsSKc2iutshOyBXBVKl9ndT-T4D50L3ult3WDAVbVqBFrc1_GigA-WQStX25mIvrL2zP8ejErbBPMk5VZqWcLItEE/s1600/City+of+Smoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvkePogHDZ7OVIDodRFdgd0ePd5D5hgTvn2nQeX1iMGWev_mopvQUsSKc2iutshOyBXBVKl9ndT-T4D50L3ult3WDAVbVqBFrc1_GigA-WQStX25mIvrL2zP8ejErbBPMk5VZqWcLItEE/s1600/City+of+Smoke.jpg" /></a>Right now, we are reading a genre of book that I never thought I would try reading: the graphic novel. I have been surprised at how much I have enjoyed this format. The first of Jason Lutes' trilogy <i style="font-weight: bold;">Berlin: City of Stones</i> takes the characters from late 1928 through May Day 1929, which the 1920s Berlin sim recreates each year. The combination of drawing with text and dialog really addresses the issues and concerns of the working class that our sim strives so hard to evoke. We are now getting ready to read the next volume, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Berlin: City of Smoke</i> and plan to discuss this book on Saturday, June 28, 2014. I missed the last one, so I am really looking forward to this discussion!<br />
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I've sent the link about the FutureLearn course on to a few of my colleagues here at school and I think I may be joined by one or two. I'm hoping that this MOOC will be as enjoyable as our Berlin <i>Buchgemeinschaft</i>, but somehow I think nothing will quite match the very powerful combination of learning through both literature and experience that we get in our 1920s Berlin Project group on Second Life.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-27070192319121100272014-05-22T16:19:00.001-07:002014-05-22T16:19:54.306-07:00Augusta has returned! It has been such a long time since I have posted anything here, and it is now time to start this blog up and running again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusta in her <br />Hindenburgschule classroom</td></tr>
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Many of you who are educators know that the time can be the ultimate villain. We generally work 7.5 hours a day, but have more work to get accomplished than can ever fit in that amount of time. Our classes are getting bigger, as are the expectations that everyone seems to have of us. Toss in a few inconvenient personal or family issues, and what teachers have is a recipe for disaster. Think of it as working a full year's worth of work, but you get to cram it into a 10-month time frame. <br />
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In my case, it has meant an unfortunate pulling back from some of my online endeavors. With the end of the school year approaching, I am hoping to get back to them. And that includes my blog.<br />
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And do I have some interesting things planned, too!<br />
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<br />Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-91165754707300731022013-08-01T12:53:00.002-07:002013-08-01T16:19:06.788-07:001 August 2013: Connecting Family and Society, Part 2<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
So we have two very different images of Augusta to consider. First of all, she is a Berliner of limited means. But she is also a member of the landed aristocracy. Augusta's present situation is easier to "present" so to speak, but the formative years of the past need to be integrated into her behaviors as well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusta ready<br />
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A case study that outlines the status and concerns of this social group comes from the volume <em><strong>Royals and </strong></em><em><strong>the Reich: The Princes of Hessen in Nazi Germany</strong></em>, written by Jonathan Petropolous.* Coincidentally, and the reason why I purchased this book, Hessen is the region where I lived and the region where I placed Augusta. I am not going to be directly connecting her to this family in any way, but using the information in the book to give Augusta context.</div>
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German nobility floundered in the era following the First World War. Technically, the aristocracy was abolished during the Weimar Republic, but in practical terms, it remained very much intact. The traditional role of the aristocracy in German society reflected the feudal past to a degree, as the figure of the local noble still held a great deal of social status. </div>
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<a name='more'></a>Recall that democracy as practiced in the United States as we know understand it was not well-established in Germany. Even during the <i>Kaiserreich</i>, elected officials were removed from the citizens; while policy was made in Berlin, the local nobles still were looked to as the local authority. They symbolized the smaller, regional, and (most importantly) traditional social structure. While borders and citizenships changed, the aristocratic families remained. <br />
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As an aside, doing my own family research, I have found that one of my ancestors on my mother's side was identified as having been born in France, Prussia, and "the German states" in three different census reports. Each reflects the shifting political status of communities in the region of Alsace and Lorraine at the time the census was taken. <br />
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No wonder then that members of the established aristocratic elite often found themselves useful as natural choices for community leadership, especially by the Nazi German regime, which will be the subject of another post.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rare moment where Augusta<br />
is able to have a brief<br />
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What does this mean for our Augusta? Her personality in role play in the 1920s Berlin Project is one that would not be uncommon for her social upbringing. She has understood that her privilege now extends only to her ability to establish herself in the Berlin community, and she is attempting to make a life on those terms by working as a teacher in the neighborhood school. Augusta would have been brought up in an environment that values education, even though that may not have been fully extended to her as a daughter, which explains the kind of education that she received. She therefore is comfortable in a community role that does allow her to provide some leadership by providing an example of an educated, knowledgeable young woman.<br />
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Having been brought up in "polite society" gives Augusta boundaries of behavior that she doesn't cross; she still has a respect for what is socially approved, even though she pushes at the edges at times. After all, she is 22 years old and living in an era that is hallmarked by great change! There are moments where she will appear naive and where she won't understand the motivations of others in RP, but while she may not have the same history herself, she will try to provide empathy and a good example.</div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-58527352118753564742013-05-04T19:07:00.000-07:002013-07-10T17:35:42.349-07:00Augusta's Journal: 30 April 1929<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">This is the view from my home at Dorotheenstrasse 11. It's in </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">one of the lower class parts of Berlin, and it's a neighborhood with a bit of a past. Last year saw the infamous Mo Galewarden incident happen, right in front of my house! I guess with Mo living in the neighborhood, it will never be boring... but to be honest, Mo Galewarden had nothing to do with the activities in Berlin on the first day of May in 1929... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">This picture on the left looks toward the other end of Dorotheenstrasse. On the right, you can see the Wascherei at the corner. It's right across from the Polizeiamt, which is nice because I don't have a telephone. So in an emergency, I can just go down the street.</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small;"><b>Danitz comes to<br />investigate.</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Or I can do what I did April 30 when I heard breaking glass: I shouted out and the Wachtmeister on duty came running. </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I was fortunate, as Danitz, the Berlin Oberwachtmeister himself arrived. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">He drove up in the Polizeiwagen, and quickly surveyed the situation, with his gun ready. Truth be told, it was a relief to see that it was Danitz, although either Pinden or Koertig would have been just as </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">helpful. They are the Wachtmeister that I am most familiar with and they have always been very professional. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">... but there was nothing that could be found, which only added to the tension that was building in Berlin.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Looking around that night, it's easy to see now how nervous and tense everyone had become. May Day is a big holiday for the socialists and communists all over the world, and the SPD and KPD in Berlin were no exception. Only maybe the KPD was trying too hard to make their point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>suspicious characters</strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New;"><strong><span style="font-size: xx-small;">roaming the streets</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></strong></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">The Weimar government set out a ruling that banned public gatherings on May Day. After the Great War, uprisings had happened in Berlin that were particularly violent, and since this was the 10th anniversary of those difficult days, they didn't want to take any chances. Unfortunately, the KPD refused to accept this and kept making preparations for their "peaceful" demonstration. For days they had been talking openly about how the order had been reversed and that they were going to have their march no matter what. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">The soldiers and police are taking care of Berlin. Any suspicious characters are being interrogated, as I saw when I was ending my discussion with Oberwachtmeister Danitz and leaving for home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: xx-small;"><strong>Koertig and Sein </strong></span><strong style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">on watch.</strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">No one believed these radicals, and the discussions in Berlin got quite heated from both sides. There were few people who didn't have an opinion on what was going to happen. You didn't need to do more than look at what happened to Sein -- he was attacked the evening before! But like the other loyal soldiers that remain in service, Sein reported for duty and joined in patrols with the Wachtmeister in Berlin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">There were soldiers all over Berlin that night. They rode in police vehicles. They walked patrols. Ernst came by on horseback to see if all was quiet in our section of Berlin, and was even joined by the General on his horse after a while. This all gave the citizens of Berlin some confidence that at least the situation would not get too out of hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Mamma would be horrified by this situation, but then again, she doesn't deal well with a real crisis. I think Pappa would be doing what I am doing. I'm trying to keep my opinions to myself and just observing what is going on. </span></div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-4546139115374143282013-03-01T11:24:00.002-08:002013-06-08T10:54:16.701-07:0017 February 2013: Connecting Family and Society, Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Augusta's Wiesbaden home</td></tr>
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Where the classroom and role play begin to mix is at the point where I needed to bring some distinct detail to Augusta's personal history. The basic teaching according to Virginia Standards of Learning for this period (WHII.11b and WHII.11c) do not actually require any great deal of depth on Weimar. Indeed, the word "Weimar" does not appear in any SOL related documents found on the Virginia DoE website. However, understanding Weimar is crucial in understanding the Third Reich.<br />
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There is more openness in the IB curriculum that I teach. One of the topic options is "The Rise and Rule of Single Party States" and while we don't formally teach this one at my school, it does relate to the "Causes, Practices, and Effects of War" topic. So I tend to wrap the two in together, as the resolution of World War 1 is a contributing factor to the start of World War 2. Therefore, I can put much more time and detail into teaching Weimar at this level.</div>
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In my own classroom, I have found students of both 9th grade World History 2 and 12th grade Twentieth Century Topics to be fascinated by the question, "How did someone like Hitler get into power?" And it's an important question, not easily satisfied by simply telling them that things were bad after World War 1. Important questions are often not easily explained either, like many core questions we are asked to teach. Any society has a multifaceted complexity to it, so the next step was to find out what happened to the different strata of post-WW1 German society, and make sure that Augusta's backstory was reflecting that appropriately.<br />
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There is an abundance of generalized evidence for how the overall German economy impacted people's lives after the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were imposed. But as is the case with most of history, the generalizations do not tell the complete story, and won't adequately answer the question. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Augusta in a</strong><br />
<strong>1920s day dress</strong></td></tr>
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Choices I had made in various roleplay sims set up my choice of Augusta Maria Carolina von Nassau-Weilburg, as previously discussed. What I began to do was to look for resources to facilitate my knowledge of how the upper classes in Weimar dealt with their changed status. To many today, it appears that the landed elite suffered very little change, however this was far from the truth under the surface. There is a lot more to Augusta that lies under the surface she portrays in Berlin.</div>
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They still held much of their traditional land, although significant portions of their holdings had to be transferred to the state. Officially, there was to be no more privilege of rank in German society; German political culture retained the traditional stratification and expectations between social strata. Outwardly, the landed elite appeared to maintain their high standards of wealth. In reality, the upper classes were hit just as hard by the hyperinflation of the early 1920s, retaining non-liquid sources of wealth that could not be easily transferred to "real money" that could be spent.</div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-65253399001473608412013-02-24T19:42:00.002-08:002013-02-26T19:05:23.370-08:0024 February 2013: Presenting to the Virtual Pioneers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklQlCbu2X_YXx5NVq5DtrIiyLAWHJG251Lx4wpUDRiH7B1ZoGx6EUa_sXOgM8E5JZBJWYEmF-JKh7MAWh1Okl-z6nyrdUa74jIxc9spn87X4Yrx8S1byU5HhDspHQzUzi4HMb1WVKgJM/s1600/Wardrobe+003+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklQlCbu2X_YXx5NVq5DtrIiyLAWHJG251Lx4wpUDRiH7B1ZoGx6EUa_sXOgM8E5JZBJWYEmF-JKh7MAWh1Okl-z6nyrdUa74jIxc9spn87X4Yrx8S1byU5HhDspHQzUzi4HMb1WVKgJM/s1600/Wardrobe+003+crop.jpg" gsa="true" height="200" width="115" /></a>So after presenting this evening to a wonderful group of Second Life adventurers (which was a lot of fun!), I thought I had better leave a short note to tell anyone who happens into this blog that I am working on my next post. RL got in the way again, as it tends to do. But please read what I do have here, and know that there is more to come!</div>
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Why is it I can never remember Frau Jo's phrase for the RL virus? *smiles*</div>
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As is often the case with both teaching and attending these professionally-oriented meetings, I tend to get reinspired. And it was a delight to have so many of my Berlin friends meeting up with so many of my educational technology friends! I was getting ideas as I was presenting, and getting clarity on the topic as well. Presenting to the Virutal Pioneers in Second Life is one more way to think out loud... and can generate many good things.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-75215790229875421372013-01-21T13:15:00.000-08:002013-01-21T13:15:32.215-08:0021 January 2013: Family<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
Unlike the main character of the book <strong><em><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/370756.Artificial_Silk_Girl" target="_blank">The Artificial Silk Girl</a></em></strong>, Augusta was not fleeing the police, but her own mother. And this would not have been too outside the boundaries of reality. As Augusta explains on Facebook:</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Augusta reading at the public library</strong><br />
<strong>in the 1920s Berlin Project.</strong></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black;"><em><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">I was educated at home by a series of governesses and tutors. I had wanted to a<span class="text_exposed_show">ttend finishing school in Switzerland after visiting my best friend Sophie at Château Mont-Choisi in Lausanne. Mamma would have none of it, of course, as this would have meant that I would learn French. I would spend hours in Pappa's library, reading books on all subjects. When the last tutor left, he told my parents that I was well-read and very opinionated, which I took to be a compliment.</span></span></em></span></div>
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Augusta is therefore in a situation where she is obviously different than others in Berlin, but in many way, she is the same as well. We are all products of our history, both individual and collective, which are concepts that I teach to students in my RL history classes. Trying to establish the identity of a character in a dynamic immersive role play has really deepened my understanding of both.</div>
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Like the vast majority of characters participating in RP in the 1920s Berlin Project, Augusta would have experienced the Great War of 1914-1918, and had lasting impact made on her both on an individual level as well as on a societal level. After establishing more clearly who Augusta was, I then had to figure out who her family had been as well. All of these personalities are fictious, and were created as a result of discussions at various times in Berlin. One thing about RP is that the depth of what is known as the "backstory" needs to be continually drawn out.</div>
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There is hardly a resident of Berlin in 1929 who could not recall at least one family member who had been lost in the Great War. For Augusta, this was her older brother, Herzog <strong>Albert Josef Maria von Nassau</strong>, the only other sibling she had. Albert was killed in France in 1917, at age 18. She has some faint memories of him, having been only 10 years old at the time of his death. But she remembers a protective older brother, who gave her the example of following his own inclinations. Albert did wait until he was 18, but he also did go against the wishes of his parents and entered the military at a very young age.</div>
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This meant that Augusta's parents, who I decided were to have been very involved in her upbringing, would have had very strong views on how their daughter would be raised as a result, as noted in the Facebook quotation. It would not have been uncommon for a daughter of a noble family to have been educated at home. It also would have been quite possible that both parents could have had different aspirations for her.</div>
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Eltville in 1909, from the<br />
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Her father, Herzog <strong>Wilhelm Augustus von Nassau</strong>, would have lost his obvious heir with Albert's death in the War. However, it would have been possible for Augusta to become his heiress. For that reason, she was quietly educated, and he was slowly introducing her to some of the intricacies of his role in society. As will be discussed in future posts, Augusta is aware of many of the post-war restrictions placed on the nobility and was also beginning to learn about the commercial focus of the region: the vineyards.</div>
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Augusta's mother, Herzogin <strong>Klara Maria von Nassau</strong>, was at the other end of the parental spectrum. Instead of realizing that her daughter needed to acquire a much different set of skills to succeed in a very new world, Augusta's Mamma insisted on raising her as if the Great War had never happened. Refusing to see that there would be more to Augusta's future than the traditional skills of society and gentility that she had relied upon, her Mamma was an unrelenting counter to the reality of Weimar society. And it is not unrealistic to see her mother as being overly protective. Therefore, Augusta was not allowed to attend boarding school. The idea that her daughter would have been required to learn French, who were seen as the cause of all of life's personal and societal tragedy to so many Germans at that time, was therefore understandible. This resentment of the French in general is reflected in the 1920s Berlin Project, although individual residents who have origins in France do participate in the RP.<br />
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So Augusta has a sense of her past as well as a sense of the future, which is not certain even for the landed aristocracy. She is often chided by other residents in Berlin that "Mamma would not approve" of some of the things she does (like attending the Eldorado), however she is able to hold her own in most social situations because of her upbringing. Augusta provides a reminder to the lower class residents of Berlin that there are distinct economic and political challenges faced by the upper classes, including the nobility... which will be discussed in a future post.</div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-78361817465457450192013-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:002013-06-08T10:51:05.937-07:0020 January 2013: Reaching into the Past<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">A watercolor painting of Eltville am </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rhein, where I lived from 1989-91.</span></strong></div>
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My profile in SL goes something like this: <br />
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<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>In the 1920s Berlin Project, I am Augusta Carolina Maria von Nassau-Weilburg, the teacher at the Hindenburg Schule, the namesake of an actual RL member of Hesse's noble family.</em></span><br />
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I had researched a historical identity before coming to Berlin, in response to the way RP was being played out in Versailles in SL. I wanted to be able to relate to the character more, so I looked for a real individual from a section of Germany that I am familiar with. That would be Hessen, in the Rheingau region in central Germany.<br />
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Who I found was Augusta Carolina Maria of Nassau-Weilburg. She was born in the Hague (5 February 1764) and died in Weilburg (25 January 1802) at age 38. She was the eldest daughter of Karl Christian, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg and Princess Carolina of Orange and Nassau-Dietz (making her the granddaughter of William IV of the Netherlands and great-granddaughter of King George II of England; her mother was briefly the regent of the Stadtholder of the Netherlands when Augusta was very young). Augusta was a princess, known as Prinzessin Maria to her family, and the third of 15 children. <br />
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There is not much more information about the Prinzessin that is readily available, except for the fact that she became a nun. This fact made her more interesting as a subject of role play, as her family was more obscure and her life would be more open for development in RP, especially in Versailles. She would have been exactly the right age for the end of the French monarchy. However, I did not remain in Versailles, and although I pulled the identity with me to Romanov Russia, that sim did not last (although it has returned).* <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Herzogin Augusta Carolina Maria von Nassau-Weilburg<br />
at Unter den Linden on a spring afternoon. </td></tr>
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So since I was already using the name in SL when I went to Berlin, I kept it. But now, I had to pull the identity forward into the 1920s as best I could. Fortunately, the Nassau-Weilburg family eventually moved to Biebrich, which is where Augusta calls home. I can't tell you how many times I have driven past Schloss Biebrich, the residence of this family, when living in Eltville! Restructured under Napoleon, Nassau-Weilburg became a duchy, which makes my character in the 1920s Berlin Project a noble: Herzogin Augusta Carolina Maria of Nassau-Weilburg. Descendents of the Nassau-Weilburg line are now the rulers of the Grandduchy of Luxembourg. </div>
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This has made my RP as Augusta very interesting. The point of the sim is to portray reality, but here I was, with a very interesting personality to undertake. I needed to take what I had created and place her into a believeable historical context for Berlin in the late 1920s. So I took the next logical step. I looked at the information that I was teaching to my RL students.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Ironically, it was at the opening of the St. Petersburg sim in January 2012 that I ran into the King Willem of Orange-Nassau! I will occasionally attend formal gatherings as the niece of the king of the Netherlands, which is a delightful change (although he is actually the Prinzessin's cousin historically).</span></div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-56689180048714684922013-01-18T08:00:00.000-08:002013-01-18T08:00:08.839-08:0018 January 2013: Developing Character, Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>An "identity crisis" is a whole new</strong><br />
<strong>issue for people starting to role play</strong><br />
<strong>in a virtual environment.</strong></td></tr>
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Introductions tend to be pretty straightforward. Someone says "hello" and you begin to communicate, and you decide how much of your personal history that you want to share with this new acquaintance. As an avatar in Second Life, and engaging in your first role play (RP) in a new community, this process is a bit stickier. Someone says "hallo" and you begin to communicate, but what personal history is there for you to share? Panic sets in... and one of two things happens. You either avoid the issue, or you start to make things up. In RL, making things up about yourself can get you in a whole lot of trouble! In SL, making things up about yourself is essential! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Cavalry veteran, stockbroker, </strong><br />
<strong>... Berlin gentleman.</strong></td></tr>
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My first memory of engagement in conversation in The Keller was with a very tall and distinguished looking gentleman, who noted my name as I entered the establishment. (An avatar's chosen identity is visible to others, depending on how your viewer is set up.) Some tease me as having the longest name in SL, but there is a story behind <strong>Augusta Carolina Maria von Nassau-Weilburg</strong> which I will discuss another time. But suffice it to say, that his comment about why German nobility would be found in a place like The Keller put me on the spot immediately. </div>
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After being at Versailles in SL, I used one of the animations I had, which can be used to make an avatar move in a particular way. One of the most important animations for the French court of the late 1700s, of course, is the curtsy. As the gentleman in The Keller had the title "Sir" attached to his name, I immediately dropped a gracious curtsy... and began making things up! <br />
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Yes, Augusta is a member of a lesser noble family located in the Rheingau, and had come to Berlin to make her own life, rather than have her Mamma make it for her instead. I did some quick calculations; my own RL maternal grandmother was 22 years old in 1929, so Augusta was also born in 1907, but on my RL birthdate. She is basically an only child, having lost her older brother at the end of the Great War. Her Mamma had "plans" for her future, and given the lack of eligible men her own age, Augusta did what any self-respecting young lady of the time would do. </div>
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She ran away.</div>
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<em>PS: My friend the stockbroker got in trouble for coming into The Keller with his collection of butterflies. They're not very realistic, but the sure were fun!</em></div>
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Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-46915510993562563382013-01-17T09:07:00.001-08:002013-01-17T16:42:37.981-08:0017 January 2013: Developing Character, Part 1<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>A visit to Der Keller.</strong></td></tr>
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After arriving at Teleportplatz and making sure I was properly attired, I found my way to the Bahnhof, got on the train (which is tricky at first), and got off at the other end. You arrive at Alexanderplatz, in the midst of a very busy commercial district. Like I usually do at new sims, I wandered around... but the sim was so huge, and like the RL cities in Germany that I got to know when I lived there, it was confusing and before long, I was lost.<br />
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In RL, I grew up outside of Chicago, which was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire with streets that run north-south and east-west, with a few intersecting diagonal avenues. (This is why it's known as the "Windy City," because the east-west streets funnel the air and accelerate its speed!) But European cities developed over time, so they don't have the advantage of being able to have straight lines for streets. Wiesbaden, for example, has two "Rings" which are what is left of the old defensive walls that surrounded the city in its past. So I wasn't shocked that I got lost. It was just disorienting...</div>
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... until I met one of the prominent business owners of the 1920s Berlin Project, who gave me a guided tour of the sim. Berliners are a friendly group, and we all remember what it was like to get lost, to not know anyone, and especially how confusing things can be if you are new to SL in general. I've given my share of tours to new arrivals as well; it's just part of the etiquette in Berlin. I have to say that it took many, many visits to totally figure out where things were, but I did get a good start. I was guided past the church, into the bakery, down alleys, up side streets, past the barracks, across from the movie theater, around the corner from a somewhat mysterious place called the "Eldorado"... and I was introduced to the heart of the sim: <strong>Der Keller</strong>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><strong>Der Keller is a neighborhood Bierstube where regulars gather</strong><br />
<strong>in the evenings after work -- if you have work -- for drinking, dancing, </strong><br />
<strong>gossiping, conversation, the occastional political argument...</strong></td></tr>
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It wasn't until after finding my way around at my next visit, I was able to actually make it to one of the daily "Happy Hours" at the Keller. Each day at 2pm SLT,* Berliners gather in this little place in the working class section of town to do what Berliners do best. We become a community.</div>
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Think of the old television program "Cheers." The Keller is a lot like that. It's located in the lower level of an old apartment block (hence the name "Der Keller") across the street from the KPD headquarters and a burned-out frame of a house. In essence, it's a bar. But it's also an example of a staple of Berlin neighborhoods of the time. If you read books by Christopher Isherwood or Joseph Roth (which we will talk about in a future post), they will talk about how these places functioned. It was rather like the English pub, which is where you would find people if they weren't at home in the evening. </div>
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And although Berliners are friendly, like with any group of people who are familiar with each other, it takes time to get to know them... and in a role play, it's even more of a challenge for them to get to know you in return!</div>
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*Second Life is based in San Francisco, so the times there (known as Second Life Time, or SLT) is set at whatever time it is on the west coast of the United States. For me, this means "Happy Hour" begins at the very convenient time of 5pm Eastern.Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-63620862328107682822013-01-16T12:02:00.003-08:002013-01-17T06:57:48.842-08:0016 January 2013: Arriving at TeleportplatzSo to begin at the beginning...<br />
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A year ago in "real life" (or RL), I was recovering from Achilles tendon surgery and was stuck in bed. I was now able to start really exploring in Second Life (SL) and took full advantage of the opportunity. I had heard about the 1920s Berlin Project in an education group, and thought I would go there. I had been to historical role play sims like Versailles in SL and to Romanov Russia, but for various reasons, they did not work for me. So, I traveled to Berlin to see what it was like there. What I found was a living community that has changed how I look at and teach history. Berlin is (to paraphrase my hometown's slogan) "a city that works!"<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>VSTE tour group arrives at the Berlin Teleportplatz</strong><br />
<strong>(VSTE is the Virginia Society for Technology in Education)</strong></td></tr>
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The rules that make Berlin work are relatively simple:</div>
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<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You need to make sure your avatar is realistic.</li>
<li style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">You must behave in a natural manner.</li>
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Following the clothing rule is easy! If you don't have clothes from the 1920s or 1930s in your SL inventory, there are "freebies" at the Teleportplatz when you land there. <br />
<a name='more'></a>SL has its own economy, and uses the Linden (L$) as the currency. But it is possible to navigate without any RL expense. Recently, there was an addition to the sim, right behind where the tour group has gathered in the picture above, and has a collection of vintage stores where you can buy clothing or accessories if you would prefer. </div>
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Remember that in Second Life, avatars can take on just about any shape or size. But to be able to move comfortably in Berlin, your avi needs to be set to normal human settings. Otherwise, you will not fit on chairs, in hallways, on the tram, and the like. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>VSTE meeting where we made</strong><br />
<strong>Halloween broomsticks and flew.</strong><br />
<strong>This never happens in Berlin.</strong></td></tr>
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Behaving in a natural manner is not hard either. SL has the ability to let your avi fly, appear and disappear, make objects appear (this is called "rezzing"), have "tags" (words or even phrases) float above your head, and much more. This is not permitted because in RL, you wouldn't be able to do any of these things! One thing that people normally do, which is to communicate with voice, is disabled by the sim, as this can really complicate things. So the residents and visitors will generally use open text chat and communicate in English. You don't need to speak German to get the most out of this sim, and you'll probably pick up a decent vocabulary if you stay!<br />
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Because of its "PG" sim rating, there are restrictions when it comes to abusive profanity, nudity (well... one exception here we'll discuss another time), random violence, and anti-social behavior. <u>An important point to remember is that if it wasn't socially acceptible in the RL Berlin of the 1920s, it's not going to be accepted in the SL version either.</u> This includes followers of National Socialism. Our sim is an occasional target of Nazi "griefers" who come to harrass and cause general mayhem. While the NSDAP was in existence in 1929, it didn't have a significant presence in Berlin, which was the largest city but not the capital of Weimar Germany. Hitler did not get power until January 1933, and was still located mostly in Munich. So the Berlin police force will enforce the rules; the Wachmeisters have been known to track down really aggressive griefers (many are RL police detectives) and bring them to the SL version of justice. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgdpUT9eaohuIWv14EhAhGg0eMCj1OPUTUKmVC0r07ezADE_ss-3sjG41YimeE9LQKIjYAloAHrKyJRBxh1vVxcmXivRJtf97t93QV_ZCyGCus8o_4aQROyHEUO8VajYzjwjBrgDAJ6c/s1600/Berlin+in+Winter_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><strong><img border="0" height="184" jea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgdpUT9eaohuIWv14EhAhGg0eMCj1OPUTUKmVC0r07ezADE_ss-3sjG41YimeE9LQKIjYAloAHrKyJRBxh1vVxcmXivRJtf97t93QV_ZCyGCus8o_4aQROyHEUO8VajYzjwjBrgDAJ6c/s1600/Berlin+in+Winter_004.jpg" width="320" /></strong></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Visitors can stroll along Unter den Linden, with a statue</strong><br />
<strong>of Fredrick the Great at one end and the</strong><br />
<strong>famous Brandenburg Gate at the other.</strong></td></tr>
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The wonderful thing about the 1920s Berlin Project is that the creator has really worked hard to provide as realistic an atmosphere as possible. There are recreations of important cultural landmarks that identify the sim as being Berlin as well as various neighborhoods, from rich to poor. The residents enjoy a Second "Lifestyle" that echoes the lives led by Berliners of the past, so we can immerse ourselves as often as we want to through the magic of technology, virtual environments, skilled builders, and actual personalities that give the place life.</div>
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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! I would love the opportunity to direct my posts in response to your questions!</div>
Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-5711913610095156162013-01-15T12:56:00.002-08:002013-01-17T06:58:39.656-08:0015 January 2013: Why Am I Here?<br />
<strong>An Introduction to Role Play in Virtual Environments</strong><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ00eNoY7j5K7oZRr0TLhhrUSoV9z_sNZNMCZ6CXZeXQBKS5ACmD-ly1i9OR4ZcpwNkpyMc0iBJLm8ez_-w9BhHvpM6PdYs3vFm_h9i9jW6Ki6pU4k2rOZKhtvle0NgUMYTbQYPNkNcrs/s1600/Tango_009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="184" jea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ00eNoY7j5K7oZRr0TLhhrUSoV9z_sNZNMCZ6CXZeXQBKS5ACmD-ly1i9OR4ZcpwNkpyMc0iBJLm8ez_-w9BhHvpM6PdYs3vFm_h9i9jW6Ki6pU4k2rOZKhtvle0NgUMYTbQYPNkNcrs/s320/Tango_009.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>My Second Life avatar, Augusta, exploring a new sim.</strong></td></tr>
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So another day, another blog post. That's how it's supposed to work, right? And for the #etmooc, they want us to introduce ourselves. So I thought I might take a slightly different approach, since most of my "real life" information is posted on the G+ page.<br />
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What brings me to this MOOC is Second Life, which I have been accessing for a year and a half now. It is basically a collection of virtual worlds that use avatars who can move through different simulated environments that we call sims. It began as a part of a professional development course on games, simulations, and virtual environments in teaching and learning... and it has been a truly formative experience for me.<br />
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From the course, I was introduced to a number of education oriented groups (VSTE, ISTE) and through those groups, I have gotten to take part in other groups that are filled with educators (Virtual Pioneers, Expedition Central, Virtual Community Library), and taken part in conferences, tours, lectures, social events, and more. From there, I started exploring different historically based sims (Versailles, Romanov Russia, Second Norway) and learning how to role play. It's rather like acting, but you don't have a script and you develop your own personality and character within a historical context. And just about a year ago, I happened to come across the 1920s Berlin Project.<br />
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This is a phenomenal group of residents (most of the regulars rent private homes, apartments, garrets) who are dedicated to experiencing life in the city of Berlin during the Weimar era. We're stuck in 1929, but since that was a pivotal year in Interwar German history, it's more than fine. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zGrM8WaPTMnP_7LwurjYmvjcmsNkjdTKbxrSz3kRW0y7U6KIFfddn2l4pKylAwmR5KtprNbLedk-gOPhE6gTRBAVZo6p4y4HKi_wmwoEp-mKiOVEsTMRqIauHYfZ5P5sqiWJUM1-Z1U/s1600/Wardrobe_002+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" jea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zGrM8WaPTMnP_7LwurjYmvjcmsNkjdTKbxrSz3kRW0y7U6KIFfddn2l4pKylAwmR5KtprNbLedk-gOPhE6gTRBAVZo6p4y4HKi_wmwoEp-mKiOVEsTMRqIauHYfZ5P5sqiWJUM1-Z1U/s200/Wardrobe_002+crop.jpg" width="91" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Fraulein </strong><br />
<strong>Augusta Carolina Maria von Nassau</strong></td></tr>
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It's Ausgezeichnet!<br />
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The creator of the sim is amazing, and has developed an atmosphere that really captures the essence of living in that era. You can see from this second photo that the Berlin Augusta is a bit different from the regular Augusta (neither of whom look like me, by the way). She has the bobbed hair and wears the fashion of the period; here, Augusta is all ready for a night on the town. But it takes more than just the clothes to have an immersive experience in a virtual environment. It takes a while to truly develop an RP (role play) backstory and character, the process of which I will describe in future blogs. But it's due to the rules and the customs of the sim and the community that allows this incredibly rich <u>historical experience</u> to happen.<br />
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As you can read in my G+ background, I do teach World History and both levels of courses do touch upon the Weimar era in German history. And although I have got all kinds of formal university coursework to my credit, and lived in West Germany during the transitional period of 1988-1991, it is this experience that has really provided me with a way to merge my educational background and past experience of living in a foreign country into something that allows me to have a very unique and invaluable perspective on the past.<br />
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So as we go through the #etmooc, I am hoping to find ways to not only enhance my own learning experience, but find ways to bring this enrichment to my 9th and 12th grade students. I'll tell you more about the RP experience as well as the "regular" SL experience... and hope you enjoy the journey with me!<br />
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JanJanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4747178317952854067.post-70744674800171956152013-01-14T09:28:00.001-08:002013-01-14T11:07:30.174-08:00The First PostThis blog is starting as a component of the #etmooc that I am participating in. So this post is probably going to be pretty lame! But hey -- we all have to start somewhere! <br />
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You can find out all about me by clicking on the Google+ link; my "About" page has everything there!Janhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10711031086047276855noreply@blogger.com2