EDUCAUSE | secondlife

CFP: Learning and Research in Second Life® Oct. 15 Copenhagen @ IR 9.0

buridan — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:50:57 -0500

Call for Papers/Participation

Please join us in a workshop on learning and research in Second
Life(R) on October 16, 2008 in Copenhagen at Internet Research 9.0 (http://wiki.aoir.org/index.php?title=About_IR9.0
)

Paper Deadline June 15th.

Second Life is a 3d virtual environment created by Linden Lab (R)
which has captured the attention of researchers and teachers from
around the world from a variety of disciplines.

This workshop aims to improve the understanding of Second Life as a
Learning and Research environment. It will bring 35 researchers
together to collaborate, discuss and workshop diverse topics related
to research and learning in Second Life. We will pursue a full-day
schedule in which participants will discuss their work and interests
on four different topics: learning in Second Life, integrated
learning, the contributions of research to the community and ethical
research methods. How can we better enable learning in this sphere?
How can we better enable research?

Our honored keynote will be Pathfinder Linden

Researchers are requested to submit papers and short biography to slworkshop08@gmail.com
, which will be selected and distributed amongst participants before
the workshop. First invitations will be offered to those who provide
full papers for consideration.

These papers have two purposes: first is to provide a common platform
for understanding our research and teaching and second submitted
papers may be considered for publication in an edited volume being
produced in relation to the workshop, or possibly in peer reviewed
publication derived from the workshop (these are currently under
discussion).

Subsequent invitations will be made based upon research/teaching
statement and biography with priority given to people submitting full
papers. If you are interested in participating, please send an email
containing your information to slworkshop08@gmail.com.

Decisions will be made by August 1st, barring incident. There is a
limit of 35 participants at the physical meeting; the event will be
simulcast into Second Life which will be organized by Jason Nolan.

We welcome professionals, faculty and graduate students to participate.

This workshop is sponsored by Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, and
is organized by Jeremy Hunsinger, Rochelle Mazar, Aleks Krotoski and
Jason Nolan. Lunch, coffee breaks and the room is included in
participation. (And you'll probably get a t-shirt!)

*We are also seeking additional sponsors, please contact jhuns@vt.edu
if you would like to sponsor this workshop.

sorry.afk: SL Student Center

buridan — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 08:18:47 -0600

SL Student Center
A number of folks have attended the Lessons in Second Life meeting that Jeremy Hunsinger hosts on Mondays from 1-2:30pm at the _blacklibrary on hyperborea.

[From sorry.afk: SL Student Center]

---

AJ posts about the idea that i've been working on for a universal student center in SL. It would be open to all students, a place that any and all instructors could put on their syllabus. it would be run by students with minimal rules and provided with some SL centric resources, like freebies and landmarks. My idea is that frequently classes are small and lack the critical mass necessary to feel safe in socializing and exploring in sl, this location would allow people from various courses, colleges, and universities to come together and find compatriots.

Second Life Student Experience #3 (World Expectations)

joesanchez — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:44:55 -0500

Continuing the series of post from a foucs group of 19 students in an undergraduate English course using Second Life for building activites.

Affinity = World expectations
When students first learned they were going to be using Second Life in their class many developed preconceived notations of what they were going to do. Students were excited by the marketing pictures of Second Life that they viewed on the Internet, “On the website they made it all look fun and interesting and you get into the real thing and its not all”. Students also expected to “play” something similar to a popular computer game called “The Sims”.

Because of the island’s private status and restricted user accounts, students were not allowed to leave the virtual campus. Students were disappointed with their lack of interaction with other Second Life residents, “It would have been more fun in the real SL rather than the UT island, the actual second Life game, there is more stuff to do, its not just a campus, it’s a whole world”.

When students first entered Second Life, they were introduced to a wide-open space with only three structures, a replica of the university clock tower, a small Greek style amphitheater, and a replica of a campus building. Students indicated feeling isolated when they entered Second Life. In one word a student described their first impression of Second Life, “Hell”, he elaborated further, “Eerie, nothing was there”.

Students mentioned feeling restricted on the Second Life campus. One student said, “The whole island was really restricted; I think it would have been better if it were more open. More interaction with the outside world”. Adding to the general feelings of being “restricted”, another student said he felt “Isolated. The island is so isolated”. Students expected to be able to access the entire world of Second Life and to be able to interact with a large community. Instead, they were kept on a small island with out any outside influence.

Second Life: Voice, will it leave us speechless?

AJKelton — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:56:17 -0500

For a month or so a number of select users were testing the voice chat in the beta grid. As of 5:38pm PDT on 3/28/07, that option is not open to everyone. You can find details by going here:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/03/28/voice-beta-live/

So - is voice in Second Life a good thing?

Many of us have gotten used to new habits developed due to needed to type conversations. There has been a whole etiquette developed surrounding this process. In fact, some of my non-education friends are very against voice chat.

I believe there is good use for voice chat - teaching, groups, etc.... But walls and ceilings don't stop sound in Second Life. So, right now, if someone is having a conversation with 20m of you, you "see" it, even though you are not part of it. Once voice chat comes in, you will be able to "hear" it as well.

One friend reported a trip to the beta grid where she was outcast and ignored by a group who were chatting because she would not use the voice chat. She said they were downright hostile.

Granted, that might have been an isolated incident, but it is likely that voice chat could segregate the SL community. I would not be surprised if the ability to use voice chat becomes an item in private SIM covenants.

Time will tell - but I know this much, I can't wait to "talk" to my class, groups, meetings, etc... instead of typing. Just NIMBY, please.

Second Life: Educators List

AJKelton — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:42:22 -0500

This list is generating an IMMENSE amount of traffic right now - but if you want to see what people are talking about, this would be a good place to start.https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/educators

Second Life: Its not always bright and shiny

AJKelton — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 22:58:17 -0500

It would be disingenuous to present only the good things about Second Life. The lagging, inventory issues, downtime, etc... One thing I've heard from a few people is that getting a response to an email is a challenge. Now, however, I have some proof of that. The most recent entry (top one) is from a few minutes ago.

***** ***** *****

Ok - trying again.

You say to write to this email address, but it doesn't seem as if it is being monitored. And if it is, why have I not even gotten the decency of a response.

On 3/19/07 5:14 PM, "AJ Kelton" wrote:

> Hello again,

> > I never received a response to my email and the problem continues. I was, > just now, sitting next to the computer that has SL running and saw the pop up > come up, I went to click on OK right away, but got the second "you are not > logged off" message.

> > Look forward to a response.

> > aj

> > On 3/14/07 11:44 AM, "AJ Kelton" wrote:

> >> Hello,

>> >> For the first few days, I'd get the blue "you will be..." pop up and then a >> few minutes would go by before being kicked off. Lately, however, I've been >> getting the "you will be..." at the same time as the "buh-bye!"

>> >> It also seems fairly random. Sometime I'll get booted if there is no >> activity >> for 15-20 minutes, other times I can hang our for hours without getting >> kicked >> off.

>> >> aj

>> >> On 3/1/07 12:32 PM, "Sam Linden via RT" wrote:

>> >>> Dear Second Life Resident,

>>> >>> Thank you for your recent enquiry! Unfortunately, we've gotten a bit>>> behind in responding to these in the last few days; so please reply to>>> this e-mail (or call one of the numbers below) if your problem or>>> request is still a concern.

>>> >>> **HOWEVER**

>>> >>> Below are some tips and commonly-requested answers that may help you>>> resolve your issue. Please review them to see if your question can be>>> answered here.

>>> >>> Sorry for the delay in getting you a personal answer,

>>> >>> Sincerely,

>>> >>> The Second Life Customer Support Team

>>>

Second Life: My iTunes in by RL and SL?

AJKelton — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:27:12 -0500

"It's been said that there are two types of computer users: Those who get this joke and those who don't."

Taken from the web page of Dot.Tunes, which you can find at http://dotpad.com. This application allows you to publish an iTunes playlist (or lists, or the entire library) to a web page for distribution to any device that can get music from a URL - such as an X Box, PDA, or, hopefully, Second Life.

If this works, it opens up a lot of possibilities for faculty members. The alternative that SL recommends is over $200 and is a full-featured application. It appears that Dot.Tunes does just enough so that it will work for what is needed. The possibilities are as limited as whatever the faculty members can put into iTunes.

There was no manual online (I was told its in the works) but they did have a forum to post questions into. I posted a question only to find that the first time you post, the posting needs to be moderated – a safety precaution I suppose. Within a few hours I got a note back from someone at dot.tunes indicting they would like for this to work and what was SL looking for in the feed. I provided the person with everything I new, or could find on SL, including URLs from services that already stream into SL. That was on Saturday and I’ve heard nothing since. TO be honest, I was surprised to hear anything over the weekend anyway, but I was hoping that they would at least post my request into the forum. Perhaps there are others out there who can help solve the puzzle.

In any event, I’ll wait and see what today brings. The full version of this application is $30, but if you buy it during the 15 day trial period, its only $15. I was able to get the LAN and external URLs to work, and to stream the music, now its just figuring out how to get SL to play nice with that.

SecondLife: More than just a new way of teaching

AJKelton — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:37:24 -0500

I said to someone last night, half-jokingly but half not, really…that I think Massively-Multiuser Virtual Worlds (MMVW’s for short, but to be honest, I wish we’d pick one and stick with it, there are too many acronyms out there for this.), are going to have the most profound impact on education since the book.

I don’t know what I could have been thinking when I said that. That is simply ridiculous, clearly I should have said the chalkboard.

But seriously, folks…is this thing on? [thump thump]

I am completely convinced that SL will have an immense impact on teaching, learning, and research. I know every thing that comes out is going to “replace” the in-class experience – TV, VCR, videoconferencing, LMS’s…everything has been the next big thing. But MMVW’s have the potential to do just that. Well, per se.

See, the thing about what happens in class in SL is that there IS a teacher, and there IS a class, and there IS a classroom (or can be). The surroundings can be anything we want – a glacier melting or a tsunami, like on the NOAA site, or a Center for Learning in a Virtual Environment, like on my little corner of the digital world. We can “be” anyplace we want, doing many things that are not possible in a non-virtual space, and we are experiencing it also in our real lives, which is where the learning is going on anyway. What we have to learn to deal with now, though, is a new way of teaching. Note I didn’t say, new material to teach. We can begin to think about exceptional ways to deliver the content, ways in which the student is excited about being involved.

Thoughts on SecondLife

ghsmith76 — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:06:32 -0600

IT management in higher education may or may not be aware of SecondLife. Basically it is the ultimate virtual playground for exploring opportunities for the classroom of the future, and SL is picking up serious momentum in our Tech Ed communities. However, It is so much more, but this post is about helping me to digest this opportunity from a university CTO's perspective.

I believe SecondLife is important enough to justify serious research into this virtual classroom opportunity. There is something about visually experiencing the person you are communicating with that makes activity like chat and IM more effective. Combine that with relatively accessible options for distributing digital content and you have access to technology that we could never justify building or buying ourselves. Work is underway by many institutions; ours included, establishing a presence in the SecondLife world. Educators like Intellagirl are becoming famous and people are building businesses and careers in this virtual world.

My advice to IT departments is for you to find out what your Tech Ed folks are doing in SL and look for ways in which you can support them.

SecondLife identity: UniversityCTO.Maculate