Today, I had the opportunity to present a basic scripting workshop at the NMC Symposium on Creativity. One of many sessions offered during the week-long event, this mini-course was an effort to introduce some basic concepts of the Linden Scripting Language.

The participants might have been better served by a parade of scripted objects. Could have peppered that with discussion about the wide room for development in this new technology. A hands-on approach when teaching scripting requires a bit more practice than I have had at this point (none).

A fair amount of planning and preparation was accomplished, and last night it seemed as though everything was ready. A restful night and a pot of fresh roast later, and the games began.

The first hurdle was learning that a co-presenter did not have access to the event. Might just plan solo flights in the future. The second jump came during the opening survey, when questions revealed more scripting experience than I had anticipated. Oh, a handful of folks were very new to scripting, but more had already written or modified scripts, some being familiar with Javascript or Actionscript.

The amount of material I had planned was lengthy. The session was to last only 45 minutes, and could have lasted 90 (which was the originally scheduled length). But, that was not the difficulty. Presenters knew well enough in advance of the shortened time slots. I simply had no experience with such a program.

The scripts and scripted objects may have been sufficient; it was my delivery that was stunted. Lessons learned:

• Demonstrating an interaction (or effect) for the group is better than letting all present attempt the interaction independently. Then, the script behind the behavior can be examined.
• Do not try to orchestrate mass editing of scripts to begin with, working all at once as a group. First, modify a script by example with images illustrating changes, step by step. Then, let the group give it a go.

Turns out that I had much to learn. Trying to accomplish 25% too much, I was less productive by half.

Still, if I was the one who learned the most today, at least some learning took place.

Monitor and adjust.