Second Life, a virtual 3-D online world, is being used by an increasing number of universities in the UK and across the world as an educational resource and forum. For most activities it is free to join and, given the sophistication of the 3D interactive environment, easy to use.
Our University’s initial involvement with SL included group work, creative and programming activities run by the computing department (add refs here). The potential for a University wide resource was noticed by C&ITS who funded a virtual Island for Anglia Ruskin. With support from INSPIRE this is now being developed for educational and promotional projects across our university.
There are four basic categories of projects, although new ways of using it are constantly being invented:
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Creation – building or importing content for art, music, design, architecture, 3D modelling, and programming.
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Simulation – role playing, social and psychological observations, demonstration and proving concepts from physical, natural and information systems.
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Communication – distance learning, meetings, inter discipline and inter institutional activities; language and cultural exchange.
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Business – promotional events, in world representation of real life products, buying / developing virtual land, trading in virtual products and services.
Underlying these broad categories is the ability to manipulate the environment and communicate and work with people from around the (real) world. There are some similarities with social networking tools (e.g. discussion forums, blogs, facebook, etc.) but, with the ability to communicate, contribute and even build this new 3D world, the experience is richer. The unique factor of this environment is the feeling of “presence” in a shared space as your virtual self meets and interacts with others in the virtual world.
The best place to learn about SL is ‘in-world’ but help is at hand as from the Computing Department which has been gaining experience in SL for nearly two years (a long time in SL). With support from INSPIRE this allows us to advise and help you plan and develop your Second Life projects. We have set up a Wiki which provides links to useful resources and further information on how to use SL for education. http://mojo.csd.anglia.ac.uk/wiki .
We would like to hear from anyone with ideas on how they want to use this environment and we can provide practical help and support for projects. In the first instance, please contact Mike Hobbs (mike.hobbs@anglia.ac.uk) or Marie Gordon (m.gordon@anglia.ac.uk)
For a glimpse into SL, please, have a look at some examples on YouTube:
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An Introduction to Second Life by Susi Spicoli
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Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning by Dr. Tony O’Driscoll
For more detail there are a number of very informative blogs – such as
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Natalia’s second Life diary
and no educational article on SL would be complete without a reference to …
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Intellagirl from Ball State University
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