The post below is being written over the course of several hours today as I play with
SecondLife and then attend the Mixer on
Colorado EduIsland. It is a stream of thoughts, so please be patient with me...
Background and Bias- While I've been in SecondLife I think a total of about 5 hours, I've become the "expert" at PPCC on the subject. I don't think I'm much of an expert because I know how to create an account, and follow some directions. (It doesn't take much to see there's a TON more I have no clue about.)
I first logged into SecondLife about 3 years ago at
Telecoop during a session and went back to try it in the room that night. While it had some "
WoW" factor (pun intended), I can't say I've found an application for it in my classes. However, we've been pushed into looking at it again this year, so I'm going to give it a shot.
Creating a New Account- I'm creating a
new account from scratch. It's pretty easy. You put your name, email, password and gender in. Then you pick a first name and it gives you a list of options for last names. My name is Nate Wassep. It's close enough to my real name to work as a public persona.
So, now it's time to pick out my avatar. (That word means something different now, doesn't it?) There aren't a lot of options, but I'll pick the bald guy, because it fits. Of course, the pigment of skin doesn't match me, but I'm pretty sure I can customize it.
After loading the software, I went through the tutorial. I ran into two issues. First, I couldn't see the buttons at the bottom of the screen. When I went to do a screen capture, I discovered the buttons were there, just hidden behind my Tool Bar. Once I un-maximized the screen, it worked much better.
The second issue is I couldn't change the pigment of my skin. I want the avatar to at least pretend to be me. I couldn't solve this second issue, so I resigned myself to the issue and moved to Colorado EduIsland.
Exploring EduIsland on My Own- I wanted to go onto the Island before the crowd arrived later today, just to see if I can remember how to navigate. I seemed to do pretty well. (Maybe I am the "expert"!) It was here I also found more clothes, skins, etc. for my avatar. I wish I had known they were here before I started.
This is better, but he looks 10 years too young and has WAY too much hair! I have no idea why I care so much about my appearance. Maybe I've played too many computer games. Oh well, it's a "second life", so why not gain some hair and lose 10 years? I wonder if our students will have the same hang-ups on appearance I had.
Going to the "Mixer"- I logged in and there weren't too many folks. Being a n00b (newbie), I walked off the edge of the platform:
After getting out of the water, I recognized a couple of people and started chatting. I had some issues learning how to "Talk". You really want a headset for this because the background noise can be really distracting. In any case, if you click on the lock button, you can talk non-stop, but that's not always recommended. It's a lot like a conference call.
The Tour- I wanted to check out the place, so off I went to the first building I saw. It looked a lot like the Air Force Academy
chapel, but with seats and a disco ball. It looked like a good place to go sit down.
One thing I notice about Second Life which bothers me is the lack of people for the space. This room is huge and I'm the only one here.
After flying off, Clarity joined me and offered me a tour. Since I've been to the Island only once before, and that was a rush in and out in 15 minutes, I accepted the offer.
The first place she showed me was a discussion area. These are simple areas where instructors can meet and talk with their students. There aren't any special buildings or objects, but quiet places to hold a class conversation.
Of course, in Second Life, you can build much more elaborate "scenes" in "holodecks". (Why am I not surprised the SL crew is taking terminology from Star Trek?) In any case, the first holodeck Clarity showed me was a generic one.
But of course, we have some fine folks working hard on building customized ones like at a Childcare center:
Can you find the areas in the center which are out of place? I sure can't but I was assured some items were not where they belonged to begin discussions with the Early Childhood Education students.
The last holodeck area was one for criminal justice, including a courtroom and jail. Special detail is being included in the building of this area including locked doors and bolted down objects.
The next stop on the tour was the 4 floor Maze. This included a navigation area for folks learning how to move around, go carts to learn how to navigate vehicles, games and a planetarium.
(At this point, I started doing something wrong with my screen captures, so I lost the cool pictures of the huge computer sitting on top of the planetarium.)
After checking out the computer, we went to the Fire Science area. This is what it looks like right now:
Needless to say, it looks like it needs some work. However, judging from the rest of the Island, I have confidence it will look cool soon enough.
The End- My tour ended here. Unfortunately, a teleport snafu and the fact it's Friday afternoon and my "first life wife" wants me to come home on time lead to me simply logging out.
Quick Conclusions- The Island was much more developed than I thought. Second Life doesn't really prepare students to go through the initial training very well. Colorado EduIsland seems to fill that in very well. Of course, will our students have Clarity to give us such a great tour?
I may add some more to my thoughts on my time in Second Life today after I've had a chance to digest it all.
