Getting a (Second)Life

Clare AtkinsSunset in Bombyx

Welcome

to my world

Arwenna Stardust says:

What is Second Life?www.secondlife.com • A 3D online digital world, imagined created

and owned by its residents

Residents are the avatars of real peopleResidents can buy and sell anything from

virtual land to virtual sexual favours!Residents can build 3D objects,animate

them, use them and/or sell themEverything is integrated into

a real-time fully interactive environment

Is it a game?It has no specific purpose or goalThere is nothing to win or lose

(except money – real and virtual)There are no game ‘rules’ – although

there are principles of behaviourIt is really a multi-user virtual

environment (MUVE) – sometimes the ‘metaverse’

Who is using it?

A number of businesses,– IBM, General Motors, Toyota Motors, Dell, Cisco Systems,

Sun Microsystems, Reuters Group and Harcourts (NZ)……Sweden is opening an embassy… apply for work permits, tourist

info…A number of TEOs and libraries,

Australian Film TV and Radio School, MIT, Harvard, The Open University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, State Library of Kansas, Victoria University of Wellington, NMIT……

U2, Suzanne Vega and BBC orchestra have all given live concerts.

Many new businesses created in SL, around 600 people employed in ‘real jobs’.

Currently over 5m people have visited, over 1.5m visited

in last 60 days and around 35,000 are online at any one time.

Second Life is a 3D platform that can be used for:

Presenting, promoting, and selling content to a broad online audience

Collaborating and communicating in real time between multiple participants

Researching new concepts/products

Training and educating in virtual classrooms, for example

Ohio University have just released this promotional video

2mins 33secs

EduIsland – NMIT Garden

Ready for a visit?A URL can be created in Second

Life called a “slurl”, it provides a means of

accessing a specific location in the SL world, just like providing a website address

Arwenna and Aidan at NMIT

The NMIT slurl is: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland/94/211/23 here

Dipping NMIT toes into virtual waterEnd 2006 – Rented space on EduIsland for NMIT for 1

year

2007 Sem 1 – Informal trial with SYD300 IT students2007 Sem 2 – Part of e-capability project using

Moodle, Sloodle and Second Life to, support students in PRJ300

End 2007 – Rental due for payment for 2008! ($750NZ)

Potential?An addition to our blended delivery tools?

Sloodle is software that is being developed to make Moodle available from Second Life

Role-playing scenarios?Interactive peer to peer and staff to peer

interaction?In world

classes/seminars/presentations/workshops….3D visualisations of concepts, micro things -

explore a heart…..???SYD300 students in the NMIT gazebo

Should we be scared?

In a ‘virtual’ world is learning ‘virtual’?How can we make the learning real?Is it playing with technology or re-

inventing educational practice?Is it ethical?

What’s next?

Do we turn our backs?What does it mean for us as educators, as students, as people?

Do we sit and watch while others try it

Do we cautiously experiment?Do we leap in and risk drowning?

What is dawning?

I have no idea ! But I have a feeling that it will shape our world in ways we can’t imagine!