Second Life for Administrators

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Second Life for Administrators

Dr. Andrew Jones

, Vice Chancellor for Educational Affairs

Dallas County Community College District

Patti Jennings

, Marketing Executive

Dallas County Community College District

Erin Jennings

, Instructional Design Assistant

The University of Texas at Dallas eLearning – February 17-19, 2008

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Overview

1. What is Second Life? 2. Why explore virtual

worlds? 3. Vocabulary

4. Administrative Issues 5. Content Delivery

6. Pedagogy

7. Virtual Field Trips 8. Resources

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Video

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What is Second Life?

• MUVE

–

Multi-User Virtual Environment

• www.secondlife.com

–

“Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and

owned by its residents.”

–

Second Life

is

NOT a game

–

Main grid is for adults only (18+)

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The Horizon Report, 2007 Edition

• Campuses and businesses have established locations in these worlds

• Much like websites a few years ago

• Virtual locations will become more common and more mature as the trend

continues.

• Time to Adoption: Two to Three Years

Virtual Worlds

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Why Second Life/Virtual Worlds

• Stimulates the mind to

consider others ways of

doing and knowing

• Helps creates no

boundaries mindsets;

provides a practical way of

doing outside the box

• Depicts visible models of

possibilities

• Because students will

expect it

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• Allows for

explorations in a

safe environment

• Second Life lets

you build

customized

environments

• Places user in

totally immersive

learning

environments

Second Health – Planet Video

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Why Second Life/Virtual Worlds

• Can devise

collaborative models

through highly

interactive sim-

models

• Mirrors interactive

experience for

millennial students

• Has unlimited

promotional potential

(limited by

imagination)

Virginia Tech Candlelight Vigil – U2Katrina

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Avatar: a virtual representation of a real person. You can design your avatar’s appearance to be whatever you want!

Island: a virtual parcel of land in Second Life. Islands may be separated by many meters of ocean or grouped together to form larger areas.

Vocabulary

Sim (Simulation): a named region that makes up part of the Second Life world.

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Prims (Primitives): simple objects used as building blocks in Second Life.

Sandbox: an area of a sim where all residents are given permission to build. Sandboxes can be set to return objects automatically after a specified period of time.

Vocabulary

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Griefing: the harassment of other Second Life residents through offensive actions, in violation of the SL community standards.

Vocabulary

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Procedures –

Buying

an Island

Pitfall: Who owns the official avatar?

Resource: Second Life: The Official Guide

• Set up a premium account and avatar

• Pick a location for your island • Purchase the island

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Real Costs –

Buying

an Island

• Premium account subscription: $10/month

• Island: $980 (with educational discount)

• Maintenance: $150/month (with discount)

• First year total: $2,900

• Subsequent years: $1,920

Pitfalls: terms of service, business procedures for monthly payments

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Procedures -

Development

Select:

• steering committee

• project manager

• developer

Develop:

• an island plan

• the island

• a project approval process

Promote

the island!

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Real Costs -

Development

• Project manager

• Developer fees

• Pre-made objects

and scripts

• Incidentals

Pitfalls: time, learning curve

Resource: Second Life Developers Group

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Procedures – Island Management

• Training

• Administering

rights

• Waivers and

disclaimers

• Holding events

• Collecting data

Pitfalls: security, hardware, griefing

Resource: Second Life Educators

(SLED)

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Content Delivery

–

Don’ts

• Second Life is not an LMS

• Text is clunky

• No Flash

• No embedded HTML

Pitfall: avatar limit (lag)

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Pitfalls: chat radius, image types

Resource: Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content

Creation for Second Life

Content Delivery – Do’s

• Images and video

• Lectures and audio

• Text and voice chat

• Presentation slides

• Interactive simulations

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Pedagogy

Constructivism and “discovery-based” learning: • Active

• Facilitated • Social

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Pedagogy

Discovery-based learning: • Immersive • Social • Interactive • Collaborative Virtual world activities:

• Virtual field trips • Chat, voice chat, animations, video • Simulations and learning objects • Projects

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Virtual Field Trips: Science

Biology

• Genome Island

• Heart Murmur Sim

• Virtual Hallucinations Chemistry • Info Island Earth Sciences • NOAA (Meteora) • Svarga Technology • Cisco • Dell Island

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Art

• UTD ArtTech

• Virtual Sistine Chapel

Social Studies

• Morocco (Casablanca)

• Rome (Roma)

Music

• Live concerts

Virtual Field Trips: Humanities

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Additional Resources

For more information about virtual worlds and higher education, and to download a copy of this presentation, please visit our blog: www.higherworlds.blogspot.com

And our wiki:

www.higherworlds.wikispaces.com

More resources:

SimTeach wiki: www.simteach.org

Sloog HUD for educators:

http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/ 10/30/salamander-sloog-arrives-for- educators/

SL Browser: http://slbrowser.com/

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Contact Information

Dr. Andrew Jones

Avatar: DrAndu Jonesford Email: [email protected]

Patti Jennings

Avatars: Patti Lemuria / Patti Jennings Email: [email protected]

Erin Jennings

Avatars: Serinity Gaea / Brianne Jennings Email: [email protected]