Before I began my job as a librarian on a college campus, my experience of virtual worlds or
VWs was through my children. For little over two years they have been visiting
VWs like
Webkins, Barbie, Polly Pockets, Club Penguin,
Roblox, and Cartoon Network sites like Totally Drama Island. In these
VWs they create homes for their avatars and play games with other players. Recently, my son has migrated to
Roblox.com where movement and game interaction is more advanced, more like the virtual world, Second Life. The tools in
Roblox allow players to go beyond drag and drop and click and choose controls. With
Roblox.com players can create settings or stages with building tools and add script to build actual game levels. They also navigate their avatar with navigation tools much like the tools in Second Life.
In January 2008 I had my first introduction to Second Life and I had many misgivings about it in the beginning. I pictured it to be
alot like my children's
VWs and wondered why grown ups would want to be in a virtual world playing make-believe? When my boss requested that I learn about Second Life as part of a college initiative I was skeptical. After reading articles and viewing
SL videos by other university scholars I felt a little more optimistic. I learned how college professors were using
SL to train students in different subjects and how they were having virtual meetings with students. I also learned of the places in
SL that represented real places of interest in the real world, places like the
Taj Mahal, the Sistine Chapel, Ancient Rome and Shakespeare's' Globe Theater. The last gives virtual performances of famous plays. I began to see Second Life in a more positive way. That lasted until I finally went into Second Life.
After I entered
SL I began to have many negative experiences beginning when I entered via the traditional Linden method. When you first create your avatar and
rez to Orientation Island or
Help Island your avatar isn't always fully dressed. I felt very exposed and I was immediately watchful and distrusting of
SL from that moment on.
Over the next few months, I expressed concerns over the negative impressions that I got from the strange avatars waiting to great newbies. Many of which are bizarre and too eager to help your avatar. I always mistrust individuals who are immediately in my face offering help. It makes me think of over eager salespeople. Another concern I had was the difficulty one had in learning how to move your avatar, use the tools to build and how to navigate when you first entered Second Life. Despite all I had read and watched on videos about
SL, I still had a very hard time figuring out what to do and where to take my avatar for training when I first got there.
In order to overcome a feeling of vulnerability and the need to move away from the other avatars, I learned to fly away. Instead of walking my avatar around in
SL I started looking for help at a distance. What I discovered at
Orientation Island was that training in
SL was poorly laid out, at least at Orientation Island. I had to go to
SL wikis and articles to find out how to get around in
SL. I also had a student worker research and train in
SL navigation and tools and together we shared how-to tips for
SL. At the end of the summer I still wasn't a big fan of
SL.
At the beginning of the Fall semester I started to attend workshops and conferences on using
SL that were sponsored by my college. I spoke with instructors from other universities and colleges that were using
SL in their instruction. From these interactions I got a more positive view of Second Life and gained some very
useful insight and hands-on training. When my college set up its own island I felt safer trying out the navigation and building controls. Soon I met with other
colleagues using and exploring
SL as a
teaching environment and my views on
SL changed tremendously.
Now that I finally feel comfortable in
SL I'd like to share some of the most important bits of information I have gained in teaching others how to enter, explore and develop learning environments in
SL. If you want to take students into Second Life follow these steps for a more positive experience.
Day 1:
- When one creates an avatar for the first time, realize you can change your avatar's appearance later. Do not let students get bogged down in customizing their avatar before they understand more about SL.
- Expect it to take 15 minutes or more to find a name for your avatar. No this can not be changed later.
- Join the group Scholar Island and set that as the place of entry for your avatar. Instinct is to skip over joining a group. However, this is the place your avatar will start its life in SL and starting in a positive and helpful place is key to being successful in SL.
- Scholar Island offers step-by-step instruction on: moving your avatar, learning how to teleport to other islands of academic or special interest, and how to use second life tools on the menus that are at the top and bottom of the window.
- The first tools you should learn are the arrow keys and the page up and page down keys.The arrow keys move your avatar, the "page up" makes your avatar fly and the "page down" brings your avatar back to the ground.
- Flying is much easier to master than walking. It is important though to learn to walk. It makes users more comfortable. Walking around at Scholar Island helps.
- Next, introduce students to the right click features: appearance, gestures, sit here, take, buy, create, edit, attach, wear, delete, copy and stand.
Day2:
- Since a lot of students and people can not focus on learning until they feel comfortable in their own skin, you might as well teach them how to right click and change their avatar's appearance. Having observed people using SL for the first time, I find this to be true. It is also very confusing for new avatars to distinguish themselves from each other when they've selected the same basic avatar.
- To help them customize their avatars you might be tempted to send them shopping at Freebie Heaven. This is a mistake. I recommend you shop and add clothing, hair and accessories to your own inventory and then share the inventory with your students. If you send them off shopping you will never get them back on track until they are done.
- Sharing clothing this way also gives you the opportunity to introduce the students to group sharing and the inventory tool.
- One of the first things to do now is send out invitations to your students to be friends and establish your group. I would also show them how to set their Home option so that they can return quickly to Scholar Island if they need to get away from a strange avatar or they get lost. If your college has an island of its own, you may want them to select it as home.
- Lets call this the end of day 2 and finish by showing students how to use the File menu tool to quit and log off of Second Life.
Day 3:
- Show students how to login to Second Life and remind them that they will be rezzing to Scholar Island. Let the students walk through the island's "how-to" building and let them practice using the tools on their SL menus.
- Once they have gone through this training. I'd show them how to use the mini-map and the main map to search for and teleport to new locations. Locations that you have selected and are familiar. If there is time at the end of this class or day's training, I'd have them learn how to use gestures just to end on an upbeat note.
Day 4:
- Introduce the students to the communication tools. Let them chatter or IM for awhile and then give them an assignment where they visit a place and discuss some aspect of the place and how it might relate to a learning experience. If you send them to Shakespeare's Globe theater they might discuss how the avatars there are in period costume. If they go to the Sistine Chapel they might discuss the building and its architecture. One professor of urban planning sends students to different cities in SL and has them discuss how they are laid out.
- This is a good time to show them the Search tool and explain to them that they may be exposed to mature content. If they want to guard against most of it they can deselect the box next to"Include parcels with mature content". Not all mature content parcels are questionable though. Have the students search given topics under each of the tab options in Search. You may want to have them look for and then attend an event now. Attending events is another good way for students to experience the uses of virtual worlds in global communication and group interaction. Be sure to show students how to use the communication tools again if you want them to participate in the event's discussion. This might be a good time to introduce gestures such as clapping, raising a hand, laughing and others they might want to use at the event.
- You may want to end the session by having the students use the map to search for and teleport home. Send them to another location or show them how to return to Home.
Day5:
- If you feel your students are ready to create and build begin by providing ready made objects for them to move, alter and arrange. If you start by having them build from scratch they will get discouraged. I collected free buildings, furniture, and clothing when I first came to SL from Freebie Heaven. So I provided these for them to practice with while using the building tool.
- A good collaborative project is to have them construct furnishings for a particular business or a home. Then have them arrange the objects inside the rooms. This will give them more confidence in using the building tool.
- If students need inspiration for building take them on tours of other SL buildings and places. Many islands offer tours for visiting avatars. Some even offer virtual balloon rides, gondola rides and train rides.
Some of these activities will take more time than others. How long activities take depend on your students' background in computer software. Younger students who are also gamers will have the easiest time learning about Second Life. I recommend you enlist them as peer tutors.
Places to visit on the web for more information on SecondLife.
http://travelingavatar.quickanddirtytips.com/free-stuff-in-second-life.aspx
http://connect.educause.edu/browse/content/node/691,6161,6147/feed
http://cybrarycity.blogspot.com/2007/01/free-stuff-in-second-life.html
Here is another jewel sent my way from one of my friends. I thought I'd share it with you. It seems almost harsh to call it a website when it seems to me- to be more like a work of art. I hope you enjoy it.
I just finished reading Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum. The first chapter emphasizes the changes in technology as it interfaces with the world's populous and students today. It goes into detail to highlight the changes and uses of technology and the Internet in today's business world and in its global collaboration.
One of the things I like about the new TV series, Life on Mars is the music. Well, I must not be the only one because the Life on Mars website has its own radio station. You can listen in by clicking on this link that takes you straight to it. It not only plays the music you hear in the episodes, it has news clips from 73' to make your musical time travel trip to 1973 more real.