My First Day in the “Real” World

Well, that was strange.

I'd just been minding my own business, having a drink and a nice stimulating chat in the New World Cafe, as per usual. Then suddenly a door I'd never seen before appeared. I figured I might as well go through it – after all, I could just click the link to get back to where I'd been before.

But when I came out on the other side of the door, I didn't recognise the room I was in. In fact, I had a suspicion that I wasn't on QUBE at all. If I wanted to sit down on a chair I had to go all the way over to it, rather than just being able to click on it and zip straight there. There were screens all around the room, but you had to attach a little computer to them to get them to show things, rather than just dragging your document on to it.

The weirdest thing were the people everywhere. They were all different shapes and sizes from each other! And instead of being nice bright colours, they were a hodgepodge of boring colours, like pinks and browns and greys. For some reason, they had long things coming out of the sides of their bodies that they used to carry things around (why they didn't just make things move things through the air is beyond me). It also looked like no one had taught them how to hover, because they were “walking” around on things called “feet”. And worst of all, I had to do it too.

I eventually found out that I was at a conference for the Association of Project Management, which was a relief, as project management is one of my specialities. It was also cheered me up seeing Pentacle there, as they understand the New World, which is where I live. Susan, Katie and David were all very helpful, explaining to people who I was and how they could benefit from becoming a virtual avatar like me. Some people even asked if they could have their photo taken with me – I felt like a bit of a celebrity.

So it was odd day, and I don't know what I'm going to do next in the “real” world, but for now at least I'm a happy qubot.

This is guest post written by one of our qubots, who somehow managed to escape the virtual world to join as at the APM Conference. You can view more pictures of what he got up to here. To find out more about QUBE, the virtual learning medium where tutors and course members can interact as qubots, visit http://QUBE.cc