This document discusses the benefits of virtual worlds like Second Life and provides an overview of its features and uses. It notes that Second Life allows for engagement, immersive education, collaboration, discovery, productivity and more. Many businesses, schools and organizations have a presence in Second Life, including over 100 universities. The document outlines some of the activities people can do in Second Life like meetings, concerts, events, information sharing, outreach and more. It also provides resources for educators and researchers interested in using Second Life.

1. Why Second Life? Patricia F. Anderson, pfa@umich.edu (a.k.a. Perplexity Peccable) Assisted by Marc Stephens (a.k.a. Memetic Projects) © 2008 Regents of the University of Michigan. All rights reserved.

2. First, Why Virtual Worlds? ROI Economics Skills building / modeling Transferability Access Global Asynchronous Synchronous

3. Why Virtual Worlds Qualitative Vision Diversity Collaboration Community Future & Current Trends Virtual Worlds for Children & Youth Integration Portability Scalability

4. Why Virtual Worlds IBM GIO Report: http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/www_innovate.nsf/pages/world.gio.gaming.html

5. Why Virtual Worlds Trondsen, Eilif. Virtual Worlds and Collaborative Work, Survey Results: http://sric-bi.com/news/VWCcollabwksurvey2008-03.pdf

6. Where are our kids? Gaia: http://www.gaiaonline.com/

7. Who’s there with our kids? Motherhood is Hell: February 28, 2008: Confessions of a Middle-Aged WebKinz Addict: http://motherhoodishell.blogspot.com/2008/02/confessions-of-middle-aged-webkinz.html

8. What are our kids learning in virtual worlds? Alice: an Educational software that teaches students computer programming in a 3D environment: http://www.alice.org/

9. Why should we care if our kids play there? The Affordances of Virtual Worlds and 21st Century Learning Environments (Tuesday 29th April 2008 9:53am): http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/affordances_virtual_worlds/

10. New developments Naone, Erica. Whole Body Gaming (Monday May 5, 2008): http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4790043&page=1

11. New developments Emortal, the next generation playground: http://www.emotiv.com/

12. Important Virtual Worlds Trends MediaGrid Second Life World of Warcraft Wonderland Croquet OpenLife OpenSim

13. So You’ve Heard About Second Life Screenshot of SecondLife website http://secondlife.com/

14. So You’ve Heard About Second Life “ Second Life is a 3D online digital world imagined, created, and owned by its residents.” “ Your world. Your imagination.” http://secondlife.com/

15. So You’ve Heard About Second Life Also known as the Metaverse , a term from Snow Crash , a novel by Neal Stephenson. What does it mean -- “3D online digital world”? http://abyss.hubbe.net/fredrik_favs.html

16. Second Life is a Virtual World With: Doctors, bankers, candlestick makers; Builders, workers, dancers, shirkers; Churches and homes; gardens and domes; Libraries, museums; teachers and beach bums!

17. Second Life is Growing … From ~2002 to ~2007 …

18. Who is Already There? Corporate Adidas Apple Inc. Best Buy BMW Cisco Systems Coca Cola Comcast Dell H&R Block IBM NBA (basketball, really) NBC Nissan Pontiac Reuters Sun Microsystems Toyota The Weather Channel Warner Brothers … and many more …

19. Who is Already There? Businesses Map of corporate presence in Second Life from the Kzero blog. (Second Life Brand Map version 1.6) Source: Kzero: Second Life Brand Map: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?page_id=431

20. Who is Already There? Schools Bowling Green State University Columbia University Duke University Drexel University Harvard University New York University Ohio State University Pennsylvania State University Princeton Stanford University SUNY Temple University UCLA & UC - Berkeley University of Cincinnatti University of Colorado at Denver Medical Center University of Kansas Medical Center University of Texas Medical Branch University of Tennessee College of Medicine Vassar College Virginia Tech … and over 100 more. Source: SimTeach: http://tinyurl.com/2fen2s

21. Who is Already There? Schools Map of colleges and universities with a presence in Second Life from the Kzero blog. (Second Life College Map version 1.6) Source: Kzero: Second Life University Map: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?page_id=551

22. Why Second Life … Be where the students are Engaging our new students Immersive environment (you gotta see it to believe it) Allows interactive distance education on a level previously unimaginable Personal productivity - meetings and more Collaboration & simulation & visualization, oh my …

23. More Practically … Professional Engagement Economics Discovery Education Productivity Collaboration International / Global Qualitative Reasons

24. Second Life Now or Later? “ Imagine it’s 1949 and you’re a big brand. Do you NOT participate in TV? Or, it’s 1925. Do you NOT participate in radio?” Tuple vs. Kipple. Value of Measuring Engagement. June 7, 2007.

25. What’s There? Basilica di San Francesco di Assisi

26. What’s There? Nanotechnology Island

27. What’s Happening There? Interacting with Cells

28. What’s Happening There? Outer Space Simulations

29. What’s Happening There? Clinical Training

30. What’s Happening There? Historical Reenactment

31. Things to Do: Meetings

32. Things to Do: Concerts

33. Things to Do: Events Images of presenter with slides in front of a conference audience at the Second Life Best Practices in Education annual meeting.

34. Things to Do: Information

35. Things to Do: Outreach / Advocacy

36. Things to Do: Data Visualization

37. Things to Do: Collaboration Think wiki-types of functionality in visual and 3D spaces

38. Things to Do: Healthcare Consumer Communities

39. Education Ohio University Second Life Campus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuNFRie8wA

40. Education Ideas Basic sciences Interactive anatomical & cellular models Class or small group interaction with anatomical avatars Communication skills Patient history taking Problem solving Cultural competencies Ethical role-playing Clinical space design & modeling

41. Education Ideas Guided discovery Treasure hunts Exploration Construction Design 3D modeling Roleplay Meetings Distance learning International teaching

42. What You Need To Know Beforehand Tech Bandwidth Hardware Screen resolution / Video cards Frequent Downloads / Software Updates Social & Planning The Wednesday Factor (grid is down for upgrades) Small Groups SLURLS Money in SL

43. Go shopping with a muscle man Build a cathedral. Visit with angels, devils, and dragons Build a skeleton for a giant, with a beating heart. Teach others how to help. Scan an Easter Island statue and import it as a 3D object. Explore a coral reef ecosystem -- in high heels. Piggyback a ride on Saturn and take tourist pics of the rest of the solar system. “ Your imagination. Your world.”

44. Starter Resources for Higher Ed SL Education Conklin, Mega S. 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom. http://facstaff.elon.edu/mconklin/pubs/glshandout.pdf Open Sledware (Open Courseware in Second Life): http://opensledware.wikispaces.com/ Second Life Educators Archives: https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/ SimTeach Wiki: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php

45. Starter Resources for SL Science & Research McConaghy, T. Troy. A Sampler of Science in Second Life. Nature Network: http://network.nature.com/blogs/user/U475C43B9/2007/06/17/a-sampler-of-science-in-second-life Second Life Research: http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/ Science & Technology in Second Life: http://scilands.wordpress.com/blog/

46. More Resources Cited in This Presentation The Affordances of Virtual Worlds and 21st Century Learning Environments (Tuesday 29th April 2008 9:53am): http://spotlight.macfound.org/main/entry/affordances_virtual_worlds/ Alice: an Educational software that teaches students computer programming in a 3D environment: http://www.alice.org/ Gaia: http://www.gaiaonline.com IBM GIO Report: http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/www_innovate.nsf/pages/world.gio.gaming.html Motherhood is Hell: February 28, 2008: Confessions of a Middle-Aged WebKinz Addict: http://motherhoodishell.blogspot.com/2008/02/confessions-of-middle-aged-webkinz.html Naone, Erica. Whole Body Gaming (Monday May 5, 2008): http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/GadgetGuide/story?id=4790043&page=1 Trondsen, Eilif. Virtual Worlds and Collaborative Work, Survey Results: http://sric-bi.com/news/VWCcollabwksurvey2008-03.pdf

47. More Resources Cited in This Presentation Kzero: Second Life University Map: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?page_id=551 Kzero: Second Life Brand Map: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?page_id=431 Brandon, John. The 8 Top Corporate Sites in Second Life. Computerworld May 2,2007. http://tinyurl.com/3yzzgk Second Life Research: Brand Entry Timeline for the Automotive Industry. http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/2007/06/brand-entry-timeline-for-automotive.html Tuple vs. Kipple. Value of Measuring Engagement. June 7, 2007. http://blogs.electricsheepcompany.com/joel/?p=21

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