Every once in a while it seems like some of the initial buzz on Second Life has quieted. It’s great to see new interest, even in the middle of the economic downturn facing both the real and virtual worlds.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/64504.html?wlc=1221910819
--dd-
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Thanks to Myrilla Vixen....
Our Lindens, who art in the Labs,
Hallowed be thy prims.
Thy Grid-dom come, thy will be done,
On sims, as it is in The Preview.
Give us this day our daily crash,
And forgive us our Spammery,
As we forgive those, who grief against us.
And lead us not, into private parcels.
Amen.
Hallowed be thy prims.
Thy Grid-dom come, thy will be done,
On sims, as it is in The Preview.
Give us this day our daily crash,
And forgive us our Spammery,
As we forgive those, who grief against us.
And lead us not, into private parcels.
Amen.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Back from Second Life Community Convention
And so I'm back from Second Life Community Convention 2008. This was one of the best geekfests I've been to in years! I'm finding of really hard to get all my impressions together and coherent.
My initial impression was just plain awe at finally meeting some of the real people on Second Life. Up to now my only contact with anyone on Second Life has been their avatar version. This was interesting, but made me feel even more isolated in the Great South Florida Tech Wasteland, without any real friends to chat with about the subject. I did campaign a lot for contacts, telling just about everyone I met to turn over any South Floridians they encouraged over to me, posting bulletins on the board, and making a general nuisance of myself. I hope it pays off at Some level.
One really great discovery was that the Second Life community was a much wider age group than I expected. Yes, many of the participants were in their early 20s. But about the same number or more appeared to be in their 40s and 50s or more. Very different from some of the other tech conventions where people all seemed very old or very young. I’m thinking this may be an outcome of the very richness of Second Life. Many different "jobs" require many different talents and personalities, and SLCC includes them all with open arms.
One of the highlights was meeting Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins, co-author of ”Second Life For Dummies” . She looks exactly like her avatar with the trademark red streak in her hair. But she impressed me by bring eminently approachable and I found out she is the recent mother of triplets. This has astronomically raised my respect for all the work she does for the SL community now that I know they no mortal could handle her load.
--dd-
My initial impression was just plain awe at finally meeting some of the real people on Second Life. Up to now my only contact with anyone on Second Life has been their avatar version. This was interesting, but made me feel even more isolated in the Great South Florida Tech Wasteland, without any real friends to chat with about the subject. I did campaign a lot for contacts, telling just about everyone I met to turn over any South Floridians they encouraged over to me, posting bulletins on the board, and making a general nuisance of myself. I hope it pays off at Some level.
One really great discovery was that the Second Life community was a much wider age group than I expected. Yes, many of the participants were in their early 20s. But about the same number or more appeared to be in their 40s and 50s or more. Very different from some of the other tech conventions where people all seemed very old or very young. I’m thinking this may be an outcome of the very richness of Second Life. Many different "jobs" require many different talents and personalities, and SLCC includes them all with open arms.
One of the highlights was meeting Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins, co-author of ”Second Life For Dummies” . She looks exactly like her avatar with the trademark red streak in her hair. But she impressed me by bring eminently approachable and I found out she is the recent mother of triplets. This has astronomically raised my respect for all the work she does for the SL community now that I know they no mortal could handle her load.
--dd-
Saturday, September 6, 2008
SLCC: Saturday Morning: Keynote: Philip Rosedale (Philip Linden) and Mark Kingdon (M Linden)
==Philip==
In going over the progress of Second Life from the beginning, Philip made an interesting statement that while there was much work to do in the virtual worlds, we had reached a point at which the process was really “unstoppable”, that it was here to stay even if the exact direction was still fuzzy.
The general populace looks at virtual worlds as somewhat poor representations of the real world. The graphics are not perfect, the motions are clunky. The view is that virtual worlds are getting better and better at representing real life. That they are approaching the asymptote of reality and will never quite reach it.
Philip had a differing viewpoint, that virtual worlds were headed to surpass reality, not mimic it. Second Life is already replete with examples of people doing things they simply could not do in real life. Hollywood already uses virtual reality techniques in many spots in movies because it is actually a better way to make the images. So the virtual world started with real life as the model but will go beyond it.
Another differing view is that against the general idea that virtual worlds anonomize their users. But that view is one created by a shallow experience with Second Life, where people “just try it out”. The experience of most Second Life user is the opposite, where strong bonds can be formed between virtual people.
One special area in which this shows are with language barriers. The web in fact segregates by language. The example of the Olympics in Beijing was used. Even if the main site is cross language, you’re not going to learn about China by following the Chinese links. In Second Life, by contrast, you can drop someone in virtual China and they’ll go off exploring. They understand what a road is. They can go inside an interesting building.
One of the challenges with Second Life use now is plainly the interface. 3D cams offer some interesting promise for this in the future, a gestural interface. In the meantime, Linden Labs is committed to improving the user experience.
==Mark==
Mark was very simple: He has the coolest job in the world, and Second Life was all about hair!
On more mundane matters, he stressed his obsession with improving the new user experience. The three elements Linden Labs is focused on are relevance, usability, and reliability.
Marc stressed that as far as virtual world interoperability is concerned, we are at the very earliest days. Right now there are really only baby steps of allowing avatars to move from environment to environment, The problem of transferring assets between world is a much tougher nut to crack. One of the core features of Second Life is that designers count on the fact that their creations are protected by Second Life rules. But how would other worlds honor that? Even if the rights were correctly communicated, how can you be sure other worlds will enforce them correctly. Mark made a great analogy to the real world where moving within a country is pretty free, but moving between countries requires much more control.
Other interesting things in the directions pipeline are social features like Facebook for the younger people, and more media function to allow bringing in more of the web into Second Life.
Friday, September 5, 2008
SLCC: Sarah Robbins keynote
Sarah Robbins (SL: Intellagirl Tulley, http://www.secondlife.intellagirl.com/, “Second Life for Dummies”) gave a wonderful keynote on how to –successfully- introduce Second Life into the classroom.
The key elements in here view was to clearly define the promise of the program, the tool used for the program, and the bargain between the teacher and the students.
Before using Second Life in the classroom )or any tool), the teacher introducing the tool should make clear the –promise- of the tool…what the tool adds that would not be available without the tool. For instance, if part of the class were to role-play a doctor/patient relationship, Second Life allows the participants to actually dress as doctor and patient.
The second element, the tool, should be able to fulfill that promise. Second Life is young technology and certainly had it’s share of problems, but provides a series of experiences that are unique to its environment. And right now it still seems to be the most accepted tool in its niche.
The third element, the bargain, is critical. Many of the failures of Second Life as a teaching tool come from the student expecting to be told what to do rather than expecting to be participatory (the “is it going to be on the test” syndrome).
She was really and excellent speaker, one of those that makes you feel as though you’re just having a chat.
--dd-
The key elements in here view was to clearly define the promise of the program, the tool used for the program, and the bargain between the teacher and the students.
Before using Second Life in the classroom )or any tool), the teacher introducing the tool should make clear the –promise- of the tool…what the tool adds that would not be available without the tool. For instance, if part of the class were to role-play a doctor/patient relationship, Second Life allows the participants to actually dress as doctor and patient.
The second element, the tool, should be able to fulfill that promise. Second Life is young technology and certainly had it’s share of problems, but provides a series of experiences that are unique to its environment. And right now it still seems to be the most accepted tool in its niche.
The third element, the bargain, is critical. Many of the failures of Second Life as a teaching tool come from the student expecting to be told what to do rather than expecting to be participatory (the “is it going to be on the test” syndrome).
She was really and excellent speaker, one of those that makes you feel as though you’re just having a chat.
--dd-
SLCC: Case Study: Crossing the Second Life/Real Life Divide – Rockcliffe
http://www.urockcliffe.com/
In real life, educational institutions are bound by laws and accreditations. What happens when instructions teach in Second Life. Can they call themselves Universities. Eventually many educational institutions in Second Life may have to face this.
On the plus side, the Second Life environment levels the student/teacher playing field, with the teachers seen more as peers and friends rather than “founts of knowledge”. Many of the personal biases brought into real life classrooms disappear in the SL environment, where the people are their avatars.
The accreditation process if it ever comes will be challenging. The way information is transferred in SL is a bit different form RL. Much more of it is tacit, making it hard to develop a “checklist” of items which are “taught” in a class.
Rockcliffe also found that socially organizing around the same lines as a formal university simply did not work. The nature of the environment is much more dynamic. People may join and simply disappear after a few months. The virtual community requires a larger level of effort for the same level of commitment. People are committed to their home life and they are committed to their work life. But the virtual worlds, laong with the entire set of virtual-only experiences elicit a different level of commitment. This is not necessarily bad, but needs to be recognized.
There are even more challenges ahead for Second Life educators. Yes, even the biggies of taxation and employment compensation. The fact that the environment provides a low barrier of entry to startup institution still makes it very interesting.
In real life, educational institutions are bound by laws and accreditations. What happens when instructions teach in Second Life. Can they call themselves Universities. Eventually many educational institutions in Second Life may have to face this.
On the plus side, the Second Life environment levels the student/teacher playing field, with the teachers seen more as peers and friends rather than “founts of knowledge”. Many of the personal biases brought into real life classrooms disappear in the SL environment, where the people are their avatars.
The accreditation process if it ever comes will be challenging. The way information is transferred in SL is a bit different form RL. Much more of it is tacit, making it hard to develop a “checklist” of items which are “taught” in a class.
Rockcliffe also found that socially organizing around the same lines as a formal university simply did not work. The nature of the environment is much more dynamic. People may join and simply disappear after a few months. The virtual community requires a larger level of effort for the same level of commitment. People are committed to their home life and they are committed to their work life. But the virtual worlds, laong with the entire set of virtual-only experiences elicit a different level of commitment. This is not necessarily bad, but needs to be recognized.
There are even more challenges ahead for Second Life educators. Yes, even the biggies of taxation and employment compensation. The fact that the environment provides a low barrier of entry to startup institution still makes it very interesting.
SLCC Friday Morning
The first day (Friday) is all about education in SL (SLED/SLEDcc). Pathfinder Linden and Claudia Linden gave the keynote speaker talking about how the education community was one of the first to adopt Second Life way back in the Alpha dark days.
First session I attended was about using games for education. Be a group for Ohio University. The games are designed to allow students to learn pretty much by playing the games rather than feeling like they are participating in a “learning session”. For instance, one of the games is a mystery game but the questions that the student answers to solve the mystery help the students learn the different between observation and inference.
The games are designed to provide a formal learning environment even as they present the game feel. For instance, in-world chat is logged to make sure the student stay on task rather than being distracted by other facets of Second Life. Prizes are offered for successfully winning the game (learning the lesson).
The games allow the teacher to customize the questions and some facets of the game via a web interface. Much of the student interface is well designed HUDs which the student attaches as they start the session.
The fruit fly game was impressive, leading students through the feel of doing an experiment in a lab. Rather than just showing slides of information, or even showing virtual fruit flies, the student is treated to a lab where they can sit at a lab bench, “do” and experiment, and then answer lab questions about the experiment results. The lab has several benches to allow multiple students to each have their own independent session in the lab. While the students are doing the experiments, the teacher can actually walk around the room seeing what the students are doing and helping out those who are stuck.
The student can set up their own experiments where they create fruit flies by selecting form a series of dominant and recessive traits. They actually see two small jars of the fruit flies they created. They can then move them to breeding bottles. At the end of experiments, the flies are “knocked out” and put in a Petri dish where the student can very interactively count the resulting attributes of the offspring flies, down to zooming in to see eye color.
--dd-
First session I attended was about using games for education. Be a group for Ohio University. The games are designed to allow students to learn pretty much by playing the games rather than feeling like they are participating in a “learning session”. For instance, one of the games is a mystery game but the questions that the student answers to solve the mystery help the students learn the different between observation and inference.
The games are designed to provide a formal learning environment even as they present the game feel. For instance, in-world chat is logged to make sure the student stay on task rather than being distracted by other facets of Second Life. Prizes are offered for successfully winning the game (learning the lesson).
The games allow the teacher to customize the questions and some facets of the game via a web interface. Much of the student interface is well designed HUDs which the student attaches as they start the session.
The fruit fly game was impressive, leading students through the feel of doing an experiment in a lab. Rather than just showing slides of information, or even showing virtual fruit flies, the student is treated to a lab where they can sit at a lab bench, “do” and experiment, and then answer lab questions about the experiment results. The lab has several benches to allow multiple students to each have their own independent session in the lab. While the students are doing the experiments, the teacher can actually walk around the room seeing what the students are doing and helping out those who are stuck.
The student can set up their own experiments where they create fruit flies by selecting form a series of dominant and recessive traits. They actually see two small jars of the fruit flies they created. They can then move them to breeding bottles. At the end of experiments, the flies are “knocked out” and put in a Petri dish where the student can very interactively count the resulting attributes of the offspring flies, down to zooming in to see eye color.
--dd-
SLCC starts!
At the Second Life Community Conference now meeting the great real life people behind Second Life. Yes, there are others interested!
--dd-
--dd-
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