The Great Rollout Arrives!

Trumpets loudly proclaim the arrival of the great rollout across the land in my kingdom of District 73. The people have been eagerly awaiting this day. There is rejoicing in the village streets of Riverina, Indigo and Hume. December 6 will be remembered as a great day – the day we crossed the ‘information gap’ and were permitted to enter the sacred chamber of Base Camp.

Writings on the walls in Outland flourished as my fellow Pathways warriors visited the chamber and gazed in awe at the ten shining paths displayed there, each with its own colorful banner and avatar. The Path avatars were working hard to attract our attention, polling our choices, spruiking their benefits and highlighting their specialities,  like hawkers at the twilight markets in Outland. Wonder where the avatars are? I could not see anyone else in here with me.

However, back in Outland, messages began to fly around the community, hailing the start of this or that Path, shouts of ‘Eureka’ I have finished a project or asking questions as they completed their projects in Level 1.

‘How do I move to the next project? How do I collect the Evaluation resources? Do I need to alert the Base Camp Managers of my project completions? Where and how do I store my Evaluations? Can I print my projects? What do these terms mean – activate, open curriculum, launch, mark complete? How do I complete a Level?

The rollout was certainly causing waves of curiosity in Outland – not quite the tsunami of enthusiasm I had expected, but pleasing nevertheless.  There was now time to take a break from the hubbub surrounding the rollout and get down to the basics of navigating in the wondrous chamber of Base Camp.

Opening the Sacred Chamber!

My excitement was building as I began my explorations of Base Camp – I planned to document my navigation and provide some maps for others to follow. My ability to capture a screen as I worked was invaluable. I added all these to my trusty ‘slides’.

I heard someone describe the chamber as being like a ‘Tardis’ much bigger on the inside that you could imagine from looking from the outside. This was an apt description – there was so much more for me to view now that I finally entered.

First I made my way to the great Hall of Transcripts, exploring, harvesting, noting and learning all the way. I was eager to see what was different after rollout. Now the Transcript made sense to me as I could see my chosen Path glittering like a beacon for me – just one click away. This would be my go to place for many weeks! Must stay one step ahead of my followers and ensure that I understand the process to coach others.

Once I learned the meanings of the terminology, such as Activate, Open Curriculum, and Launch, I fearlessly clicked on these curious icons.

Was there a slight of hand there? I wondered, as I noted that some of the icons often had different words on them, depending on what I had just done. Must watch out for these shape shifting icons.

Exploring Hidden Rooms!

I entered through the Blue Tile called My Education Transcript.

I realised that I had been transported directly into the ‘hidden rooms’ within the sacred chamber by those keystrokes and was now interacting directly with Base Camp. The Tardis like interior was not only bigger in size, but it was taller than I ever imagined. I could see the other Levels 2-5 towering above me but could not yet reach them.

“Patience! All will be revealed in a sequential manner!” Said the Guardians of Base Camp in our weekly gatherings in the Atrium. That’s easier said than done, I thought to myself.

First I needed to view my Path and locate the ‘elevators’ to all 5 levels.

I wondered where the Gods of CSOD were lurking as I  delved deeper into my tools of learning. Someone had said that my progress would be automatically tracked. I was constantly looking over my shoulder.

Various gadgets and widgets surrounded me in my Path and they changed each time I finished something. Small indicators showed my progress! Aha, now I know I am being tracked. It was curious to see that more and more hidden rooms came into view as I progressed from one level to another.

Second I needed to master the navigation of an online class – the major ‘popup’ that occurred as I pressed launch on my chosen Path. Thank goodness the great God GoogleChrome allowed my device to activate these popups! This process enabled me to understand the navigation in here – it was like taking a book from a library shelf, opening it, scanning its index, then opening to a specific page and walking into it – except all of this was happening on the screen in front of me with a few easy keystrokes from my trusty laptop.

The online classes led me to resources, checklists, evaluations, and a special printing room where I could print anything from my Path that I wanted. Magic!

Third, I learned the importance of the navigational tools in online classes. For instance, if I did not widen this popup window sufficiently, I did not see the arrows on the left and right sides of each page. These were vital to my progress.

I learned that I could ‘jump’ to another page in the online class using the navigational tools at the bottom.

This was just the beginning of my explorations of the Sacred Chamber and the Hidden Rooms, and I was hooked!

Segue to Chapter 6: Finding the Magic Elixir!