An Educational Tour Of Second Life

An Educational Tour of Second Life Cynthia M. Calongne Colorado Technical University September 19, 2007 Copyright Cynthia M. Calongne, 2007. Permission is granted for this material to be shared under a Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 3.0 United States. You are free to copy, distribute, display, perform, remix and make derivative works. Attribute the work to Cynthia M. Calongne and distribute it with a similar or compatible license.

Second Life Statistics 3/07

Philip Rosedale, Philip Linden in SL

Founder and CEO of Linden Labs

Every day - 120,000 people log into SL

They spend 4 hours at a time in world

The average user - 15 hours per week

10% of users stick with SL, similar to blogs

Second Life Statistics 3/07 II

Larger than 2x the size of San Francisco

A land mass of >120 square miles

28-30k simultaneous logins (>40k in 9/07)

Second Life >6,500 servers

Adding 400-900 islands per month

The user-to-user economy is about $15 million/month in US dollars -- a little city

$ mostly from land, clothing, jewelry, furniture

Over 9 million accounts (230,000 in 4/06)

Visualizing Second Life at Svarga Primitive life island - simulating the cycle of life

Educational Activities in SL

Self image

Mentor, collaborate

Social networks

Class projects

Roleplay

Learning games

Blended reality

Exploration

Build

Create an avatar - you!

Office hours, meetings

Share ideas, meetings

Applied learning

Immersive learning

Interactivities

Real & virtual meetings

Visit, tour, study

Create and customize

Terminology in Second Life

Avatar

representation of self

Island

simulator or region

Object

linked set of prims

Prim, primitive

a shape you build

RL - Real Life

Rez

to render a 3D object

drag from inventory or Build menu to the ground

Sim

simulator or region

SL - Second Life

Avatar -- Self Expression

Changeable Avatar Looks

Avatars and Roleplay

Navigation in a Virtual World Teleportation map at the New Media Consortium Campus

Expandable Meeting Spaces As new avatars sit, a new seat appears and the attendees rotate

NMC 1st Teachers Buzz Meeting

Real and Virtual Meetings NMC Symposium, Lyr Lobo queries the MacArthur Foundation

Virtual Classrooms

Thomson NETg in SL Presenting video stream with Thomson NETg online course content

Finding Legitimacy in the Academy Are we just playing games when we teach in a virtual world?

Assessing Education in SL

Research

Virtual Hallucinations

U of CA at Davis

U of Queensboro

Voices, gender, schizophrenia, death

Survey instrument

Seifert Surface

Knot and fractal theory

The Future in SL

Crooked House

Dr. John Bransford

Center for Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE)

Cooperation to navigate a maze -- we sit above, gazing down while media screens with slides appear

Avatars sit above the maze looking at slides

Virtual Hallucinations University of Queensboro University of Calif, Davis Survey Instrument in SL Voices and Perception

Seifert Surface’s Research

Modeling the Problem

Crooked House You never run out of house as it rolls over while you walk

Research - Cooperation

Education in Second Life

Rhetoric Class

Class Projects

English Composition

Writing Topics

Glidden Classes

Teaching design, games, and strategies

Ramapo - 400 8th graders

Of Mice and Men

Teen Tutorials

from the Ivory Tower of Primitives - Lumiere Noir

Teen Conferences

Interactive content

40+ Free SL Classes Every Day For RL classes, over 2500 educators are on the SLED listserv

Intellagirl’s Rhetoric Class

English Composition in SL

Writing Assignments in SL

Teaching in Second Life

Tutorials for Teens

8th Graders Learn to Design

Teens and Immersive Literature Of Mice and Men in the courtroom

Of Mice and Men - Roleplay Photos courtesy of Peggy Sheehy, Ramapo Visionary

A Classroom Conference Center

Teens Integrate Visuals & Text

Touch for Interactive Notecards

Literature at Ramapo Photos courtesy of Peggy Sheehy of Ramapo

Ramapo Literature Discussions Photos courtesy of Peggy Sheehy of Ramapo

Ramapo’s Creative Spaces

Ellis Island and Immigration

Geo Gallery Ramapo teens study geometry in a virtual world

CTU Classroom and Workspace Dementasia - CTU experimental design space by Lyr Lobo

Robotics Class Projects R obots by CTU doctoral students and Lyr Lobo on Acheron LV426

Virtual Office Hours

Communication in Second Life Left to right Teleport Group Notice 2nd row Voice Chat (*) Instant Message URLs embedded

CTU Class - 1st Day in SL

CS 672 Tree Growth & Scanner

Star - Basketball - Water Park The student designed, textured, linked and scripted her star project the first two hours in SL Havok physics challenged basketball project; phantom water park

Evolution - CS 672 to CS 641 Evolution of a Merry Go Round - a study in state machines

CS 641 Projects Evolution of a Ferris wheel -- on right, has a rotation problem

Blending Systems Engineering & Software Requirements Student projects -- sensor weapon system and portable duck shoot

CS 641 - Portable Duck Shoot Score & ducks reset with push button control; Colorado Tech island

CS 641 Eliciting Requirements DART Dementasia Aerial Rapid Transit

CS 641 Requirements Projects Student designed monorail system with menu and stations

The Effects of Roleplay in Class The monorail evolved into a rollercoaster and went underwater after the customer requirements changed during roleplay.

Monorail Goes Underwater then Becomes a Rollercoaster Physics is enabled at the end, sending the car and riders rolling & plunging into the water. Customers wanted an attraction called The Thing in the Water

Learning Communities Bridging two CTU classes together with the monorail

Team Project by 12 Students The game maze sits 300 meters above Lyr Lobo’s Dementasia

A Capture the Flag PVP Maze Game I survived the Maze Game shirts Traps and Scoreboard PvP capture-the-flag game set in a maze filled with traps