Getting a (Second)Life Clare Atkins Sunset in Bombyx

Welcome to my world Arwenna Stardust says:

What is Second Life? A 3D online digital world, imagined created and owned by its residents Residents are the avatars of real people Residents can buy and sell anything from virtual land to virtual sexual favours! Residents can build 3D objects,animate them, use them and/or sell them Everything is integrated into a real-time fully interactive environment

Is it a game? It has no specific purpose or goal There is nothing to win or lose (except money – real and virtual) There are no game ‘rules’ – although there are principles of behaviour It is really a multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) – sometimes the ‘metaverse’

Who is using it? A number of businesses, –IBM, General Motors, Toyota Motors, Dell, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Reuters Group and Harcourts (NZ)…… Sweden is opening an embassy… apply for work permits, tourist info… A number of TEOs and libraries, Australian Film TV and Radio School, MIT, Harvard, The Open University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, State Library of Kansas, Victoria University of Wellington, NMIT…… U2, Suzanne Vega and BBC orchestra have all given live concerts. Many new businesses created in SL, around 600 people employed in ‘real jobs’. Currently over 5m people have visited, over 1.5m visited in last 60 days and around 35,000 are online at any one time.

Second Life is a 3D platform that can be used for: Presenting, promoting, and selling content to a broad online audience Collaborating and communicating in real time between multiple participants Researching new concepts/products Training and educating in virtual classrooms, for example Ohio University have just released this promotional video 2mins 33secs EduIsland – NMIT Garden

Ready for a visit? A URL can be created in Second Life called a “slurl”, it provides a means of accessing a specific location in the SL world, just like providing a website address Arwenna and Aidan at NMIT The NMIT slurl is: herehere

Dipping NMIT toes into virtual water End 2006 – Rented space on EduIsland for NMIT for 1 year 2007 Sem 1 – Informal trial with SYD300 IT students 2007 Sem 2 – Part of e-capability project using Moodle, Sloodle and Second Life to, support students in PRJ300 End 2007 – Rental due for payment for 2008! ($750NZ)

Potential? An addition to our blended delivery tools? Sloodle is software that is being developed to make Moodle available from Second Life Role-playing scenarios? Interactive peer to peer and staff to peer interaction? In world classes/seminars/presentations/workshops…. 3D visualisations of concepts, micro things - explore a heart…..??? SYD300 students in the NMIT gazebo

Should we be scared? In a ‘virtual’ world is learning ‘virtual’? How can we make the learning real? Is it playing with technology or re-inventing educational practice? Is it ethical?

What’s next? Do we turn our backs? What does it mean for us as educators, as students, as people? Do we sit and watch while others try it Do we cautiously experiment? Do we leap in and risk drowning?

What is dawning? I have no idea ! But I have a feeling that it will shape our world in ways we can’t imagine!