Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Holding a Virtual Scavenger Hunt

Today will be fun for me as I am holding a virtual scavenger hunt. It is something I have done for the last couple of years and I have always enjoyed organizing. Now it isn't quite as fun as a "run around the globe" scavenger hunt like the classic movie "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)" or the not as good but funny "Rat Race (2001)" or even the not so good "Scavenger Hunt (1979)". The fact is you really don't need to run anywhere, because the hunting is all done online. A list of items that you need to acquire using different methods of search and application usage is handed out with a time frame for which they all must be discovered, created, recovered and printed out or emailed with links to the results.

It might be a shopping cart full of three very different and hard to find items, or the total box office receipts of a movie with Peter Sellers in it with the only information provided being three supporting characters or an email response from your local government official. It might be.

In this case, there will be teams of three competing and yes you will be graded. (prizes too)

For those in my Living and Working in a Virtual World class who read this blog. You have just been given a head start. Prepare your strategy and form your team so you can be ready later today.

6 comments:

Netta said...

Well... heres number 11 on the scavenger hunt

Droid116 said...

Not quite, but your partner got it.

kevinfreitas said...

Here's a couple possible hunt items:

- Find a website "Made on a Mac" that provides information about Windows.

- Find the current temperature for two places on the same website with the greatest difference in temperature that are as close together as possible (the largest temp difference for the closest places wins)

- Find an ad for a WA tourist attraction or store in a publication or blog not based in WA

Droid116 said...

Thanks Kevin, I like those. I think I might make that a Tacoma tourist attraction that is NOT the Museum of Glass for one of the items. The next hunt will be in the end of Summer early Fall, so anyone who wants to play should let me know.

For anyone else who played. The Canon A80, Panasonic AG DVX100 and the Roomba had to ALL be in the same shopping cart, which is what made it a more difficult task.

Also, for number 11, the message posted had to be in response to a message you posted. In other words, you post a message on someone else board or blog, then it has to be compelling enough to get a response within the two hour time frame of the hunt to count. Wait to long to get to that one and you limit your time.

Anonymous said...

Hey Andrew, I'm from Cicero, where we just won the "Golden Snowball" (again) for record snowfall in New York State (and probably the entire planet). Needless to say, all those months of snow made me depressed as hell and a scavenger hunt sounds like just the thing to cheer me up! How can I join in?

Droid116 said...

OK Cicero, listen carefully.

Drop the icepick and step away from the Zamboni. That's it, nice and slow. It's all gonna be OK.

Whew. Anyway, the hunt is usually a small group, with the majority being from a class I teach. However, if there was enough interest I see no reason not to post the list and have others join in. Not sure of the logistics of it, but could be fun. The next time I teach the class is in Fall quarter 2007, so October is a good bet.

The current list took about an hour and a half to finish. If you want a copy, email me.

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