Sites of interest to educators in Second Life
Please use this sampling as a quick-start tour guide. For more in-depth information about the 3D virtual world called Second Life and its educational uses, see the "Juicy Links" in the side bar.
On ISTE Island in Second Life, the International Society for Technology in Education hosts a Tuesday evening speaker series and Thursday evening Educator Socials. They have also provided a venue for a number of other activities, such as the online portion of the educators tracks for the Second Life Community Convention and for the National Educational Computing Conference.
ISTE also has a Second Life group you can join and an email list for announcements concerning educators in Second Life.
Soon after the New Media Consortium (NMC) Campus opened in 2006, it became a hub of activity for educators in Second Life, hosting numerous seminars, discussions and exhibits.
The NMC rapidly added more islands to the archipelago, including several on which they rent spots to educators who want G-rated space amidst other educators. The New Media Consortium includes nearly 200 colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.
You may want to avoid Second Life’s usually hectic orientation areas and enter Second Life directly at NMC Orientation island, a good place for educators and students to get started. To do that, create your Second Life account at the NMC’s Web site instead of at the Second Life site.
A team of librarians and other volunteers from around the globe have grown Info Island from a few buildings in early 2006 to a cluster of islands bustling with activities that explore roles libraries and librarians may play in 3D virtual worlds. Educators will particularly like the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Library on the main island. It houses a collection of scripts and other tools for teaching in Second Life. Be sure to explore the presentation tool demonstrations on the nearby plaza.
Info Island and the surround islands also host nonprofit organizations, a medical library, a science center, and more. A number of universities have claimed spots on Eduisland. Info Island was initiated by the Illinois-based Alliance Library System. You can read the latest news from Info Island on its Web site and in a weekly column in the Metaverse Messenger.
Ride a Titan II rocket into low earth orbit. Stroll among towering replicates of the world’s major rockets. Watch live video from NASA. See how the planets were aligned the day you were born. The International Spaceflight Museum hosts exhibits and events about real-world spacecraft, rockets, and space travel. The museum is located on the island sim Spaceport Alpha, which has become the center of a growing archipelago of science-related islands, or “SciLands.”
Brace yourself as a tsunami washes over you and knocks down the nearby village. Hitch a ride on a weather balloon. Fly through the eye of a hurricane. Stand on a real-time 3D weather map of North America. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory’s Virtual Education Demonstration includes a variety of fun and informative activities.
The Exploratorium, San Francisco’s “museum of science, art and human perception,” has created interactive science exhibits in several Second Life locations. Splo Island is the largest of these, with exhibits spread over the whole PG-rated island. A smaller version of the Splo and a planetarium reside at mature-rated Midnight City.
Svarga’s lush landscape includes interdependent species of artificial life, complete with genes that sometimes mutate and produce new variations. Former Lionhead game developer and SL avatar Laukosargas Svarog programmed the weather, flora and fauna to influence each other as in a real-life ecosystem. At the entrance port, you can take a tour of the island aboard an automated flying tour pod or don a tour HUD that displays on a portion of your screen.
With its podcast stations, art gallery, machinima theater, customizable seating, meeting rooms, sky platforms and teleporting kiosks, Boracay Island demonstrates many things Second Life offers for learning spaces. Hang gliding, kite boarding, boating, dancing and skydiving make this island a lot fun, too. It’s main purpose, says educational developer and researcher Nick Noakes (aka Corwin Carillon) on the Boracay Web site, is to “investigate the potential” of worlds like Second Life for “learning in higher education—particularly self-directed and informal learning.”
If you have any questions or would like a tour, please contact Corwin Carillon in Second Life or email him at corwin.carillon@gmail.com
If you need to do a literature review of articles related to the social aspects of virtual worlds, the Social Simulation Research Lab is a good place to start. Each book on the shelves links to an article or Web site.
According to the site’s notecard, “The Social Simulation Research Lab is a public hub of cyber-research resources in Second Life. The Lab’s library brings together over 150 publications on the social science of internet research, computer-mediated communication and online studies, plus many links to researchers’ homepages, other online resources and online cyber-research journals.”
The process of Action Learning includes reflection in small groups. A spot on this island called Decka’s Decks facilitates these breakouts by whisking groups away from the larger classroom–chairs, table and all–then whisking them back when time is up.
“The island is a place for learning that is growing and changing,” says educational researcher and Terra Incognita owner Lindy Mckeown (Decka Mah, in SL). “Explore the many places for small and large group interaction in a range of settings, including the beach and Surf Life Saving Club in Harlan Bay, the island getaway, Captain Zed’s Submarine or the gazebo at the top of the mountain on Poinky Peak.” And don’t miss the icebreaker area with mud wrestling.
To ask questions or request a personal tour, contact Decka Mah in Second Life or email her at Decka.Mah@gmail.com
The Casablanca region captures the essence of Morocco with an outdoor market, mosque, gardens, music and other details. Students from Johnson & Wales University traveled to the real-life Morocco, then entered Second Life to build a representation of what they had seen abroad. You may don a red “Info Fez” that triggers chat messages explaining what you see as you explore the island.
Teaching English as a second language, instructors at the English Village employ what they call “holoteaching,” using classrooms where you can completely change scenes with the touch of a button, like the holodeck in the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The village’s mission is…
For more information on the English Village, see its Web site or contact Fire Centaur.
There are many regions in Second Life that cater to people who speak languages other than English. These make excellent places for language students to practice their skills with native speakers. Here is a partial list of non-English-speaking regions. If you know of others, please leave a note in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the list.
The Avatar Languages web site has a more up-to-date list of language regions.
The list below is just for example and some sites may no longer exist.
Also see the SLObserver, a French-language blog about Second Life.
There are many places in Second Life to take classes on building, scripting, and other in-world skills. The best way to find these classes is to click your Search button and on the Events tab, choose to search on the Education category. In addition, here are several places with self-paced tutorials:
In addition to those locations in Second Life, there are many resources on the Web you may find useful, such as these:
Educators who would like to try Second Life for a class without investing in virtual land may apply for an acre to use for free for one semester through the Campus:Second Life program. In addition to being a good place to browse student projects in progress, the Campus region includes several areas suitable for meetings and a sandbox where people can practice their building skills.