Pear Computer: Educational Tool in SL

Above, you can see Dembe with her Pear Computer getting ready to choose an application from the menu. The tool is easy to use and in the above picture is attached to Dembe like a HUD. Others can NOT see this image, only Dembe.

http://sl-pear.blogspot.com/

According to the above blog webpage, "Pear Computers was founded in the middle of January 2006 at Porcupine by Zoe Cure and Kilgore Pontoppidan. The idea was to build a real powerful tool that makes your life easier and more interesting in Second Life."

Pear products main store is locate at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/porcupine/230/96/143

For only 300L you can own a Pear Computer that has educational uses for instructors in any SL classroom. I recieved this item a few days a go and have been playing with it since. This item has many exciting tools that have an educational benefit. They are as follows:

• pMail - (E-Mail Client) receive and write real e-mails in SL.
• pVisit - (Visitor Detector) find out when you have visitors near your laptop (can't start pVisit if you are not the owner)
• pCalc - (Calculator) a ordinary calculator in SL.
• pInfo - (Avatar Tool) learn more about yourself in SL.
• pComm - (Web-based Communicator) to chat with you friends in SL.
• pAdmin - (Admin Tool) control access to your laptop (can't start pAdmin if you are not the owner)
• BarounNet - (SL Network) connect the the widespread network of BarounNet.
  

One of the many features of this Pear Computer is that you can leave it on your land/classroom and use the administrative controls to lock it and it can track what students actually come to the classroom, when and for how long. I found another item on SL similar to this single application feature in the Spy Gear Central Store. It was called the Business Sensor and sold for 200L just for this one feature at http://slurl.com/secondlife/sede di marte/102/167/39

This Business Sensor has a configuration wizard that lets you configure:
a. Sensor range
b. How often the sensor performs a scan
c. Whether IM notifications are on or off
d. Whether reports should be automatically emailed to you
e. Whether the sensor should be visible or invisible
f. The sensor should start detecting who comes within range, and how long they stay.

Looking at just this feature on the Pear alone for 300L makes it a good value for any educator.

Probably the least functional item on the Pear Computer was the calculator application. It has a calculator to do math in SL. Other than calculating Lindens, I am not sure why this basic calculator would be needed. Especially since the calculator application on the PC could be used just as easily. However, if this feature could be expanded to include some TI Navigator applications, then the Pear Computer would be a very valuable and powerful educational tool for mathematics alone.

My favorite feature of the Pear Computer would have to be the email feature. This application allows the user to communicate inworld and out of world through email. This would make it easy to send emails and blog updates directly from inworld to the email of a blog. The same could be done with assignments and group projects to the professor/teacher. It seems that this email feature has endless possibilities for use.

The Pear comes with easy to use instructions.

Regards till my next posting,
Dembe


They are as follows for those interested:
The Pear Book P1 Applications:

pMail - (E-Mail Client) receive and write real e-mails in SL.
pVisit - (Visitor Detector) find out when you have visitors near your laptop.
(can't start pVisit if you are not the owner)
pCalc - (Calculator) a ordinary calculator in SL.
pInfo - (Avatar Tool) learn more about yourself in SL.
pComm - (Web-based Communicator) to chat with you friends in SL
pAdmin - (Admin Tool) control access to your laptop
(can't start pAdmin if you are not the owner)
BarounNet - (SL Network) connect the the widespread network of
BarounNet.

check out our website: www.sl-pear.com

Pear Book Manuel
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Welcome to Pear Computers Inc.

2. APPLICATION GUIDE
2.1 Using the Pear Book
2.2 How to use pMail
2.3 How to use pVisit
2.4 How to use pCalc
2.5 How to use pInfo
2.6 How to use pAdmin
2.7 How to use pComm
2.8 BarounNet


3. THE GROUP
3.1 Join our Group at SL

4. CREDITS
4.1 Management
4.2 Software
4.3 Design
4.4 Marketing & Sales

5. Contacts
5.1 Pear Computer Inc. Store & Office
5.2 Questions?
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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Welcome to the World of Pear Computers Inc.

Thank you for purchasing a Pear Computer, we hope
you are satisfied with our product and services.
Come and visit our stores to get upgrades and new
software if available, or Join our Group to get
notifed about Pear Products.
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2. APPLICATION GUIDE

2.1 Using the Pear Book
When you have first rezzed the Pear Book, it will be in a logged off state. In order to turn it on you need to touch it.
You will then be presented with a menu displaying all the applications you have installed, as well as a Shut Down button, that will turn the computer off.
This menu is the default menu. If you on any of the menus in the computer ever click ignore the menu will go away. But all you have to do is to touch the machine to get this default menu back on. After 3 minutes with no interaction the machine will automatically turn off.
Some menu items are only available to the owner of the laptop - like the Visitor Detector pVisit and the control panel pAdmin.
If you find your laptop locked due to another user using it, you can always, as the owner, turn off the machine by touching it while another user session is in progress.

2.2 How to use pMail
pMail is a simple email client. When you have opened the program from the main menu you can choose "Write mail" to create and send a new email. In the "Write mail" dialog you will be presented with the mail you are working on. A mail contains a To field, a Subject field and a Body. Click any of these options and you can simply say (in one line) what the contents of that field should be. When you are done click "Send mail" to send the mail. It might take up to a minute to send the email so have patience. If you reply to an email from this computer, you should be able to read it by choosing "Read mail".

2.3 How to use pVisit
pVisit is a simple visitor detector. If you leave your laptop at your home and turn on the visitor detector it can send you an IM every time you have a guest. From a simple menu based system you can set up how often to poll for visitors and within what range. You can also turn the entire feature on and off.
The pVisit is only available to the owner of the laptop.

2.4 How to use pCalc
pCalc is almost self explanatory. It is a simple menu based calculator. At this time it only works with integers and does not support floating point operations. Start it from the pCalc menu button and input the numbers and symbols using the menu.
Choose "Close" to return to main menu.

2.5 How to use pInfo
pInfo examines meta-information about your agent and avatar and presents them in a menu box. Choose "Close" to return to main menu.

2.6 How to use pAdmin
pAdmin is the administrative tool available to the owner of the Pear Book. From within a simple menu you can here choose to "Lock" your computer - meaning that nobody besides the owner can log into it. You can also choose to turn on IM's which means that you will retrieve an IM when a user tries to log into the laptop - or you can simply choose to log it and then use the admin tool to review the log of logins.

2.7 How to use pComm
pComm is a RL Communicator that gives you the chance to chat with people around your laptop without beeing online in SL. First connect you Pear from outside SL. Use the Get URL to go to the control web page, then bookmarkit so you can use easylie later. To use the Webinterface of pComm follow the instruction on the website. Everytime you are rezzing your Pear Book the ID will change and you have to do a new bookmark.

2.8 How to use BarounNet
BarounNet is an inworld SL network that broadcasts lots of news, books, classifieds etc. This is an implementation of the free client offered by Baroun Tardis. After you've rezzed the laptop the first time it will take some time to start the application. It will try to connect to an external server and receive updates. Then you can choose the category you are interested in and it will request notecards for you with exiting news. You can choose "Update" from the menu to retrieve new news. Note that you can only update 4 times a day.
Contact Baroun Tardis for more information about the BarounNet.
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3. THE GROUP

3.1 Join the Pear Computers Inc. Group at SL.
We created a Group that could by joined by
everyone at SL. You will recive news and dates
also get notifed about Pear Products and updates.
Just write to Zoe Cure (Group Manager) or Kilgore
Pontoppidan (Group Manager) to invite you or invite
yourself.
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