Have you been seeing the TV coverage and magazine articles on the new three-dimensional virtual reality world called Second Life?
It's a world on the Internet where people from across North Carolina and the world – including higher education faculty and students – are coming together in an innovative learning environment.
Faculty are online right now delivering academic information. Professors hold classes in collaborative meeting spaces in the virtual world and they interact with colleagues around the globe.
Here is a UNCP Newswire story about a journalism class in Second Life spring semester 2007.
Some background
Second Life a 3-D rendered, animated, virtual-reality world entirely built and owned by its residents.
Since opening to the public in 2003, it has been growing rapidly and today is inhabited by some 13 million people from around the globe. It's growing by almost a million residents a month. That would seem to mean it's not a fad.
As far as education goes, SL, as it is called by residents, has become a pretty exciting new place for distance learning, educational collaboration, team learning, new media studies, marketing and training. In fact, it's a platform useful for virtual classrooms and meeting rooms, research into new concepts, real-time communicating among multiple participants, and even promoting and delivering content to a broad online audience.
From an educator's point of view
Second Life is a flexible environment for educators working in distance learning, computer supported cooperative work, simulation, new media studies, and corporate training. Students and instructors work together in Second Life from anywhere in the world as part of a globally networked virtual classroom environment. Also, using Second Life as a supplement to traditional classroom environments provides opportunity for enriching an existing curriculum.
Many universities and educational institutions – in fact, more than 175 – already are using Second Life. In addition to UNCP, they include UNC-CH, NC State, UNC-Charlotte, Penn State, Ohio State, Harvard, Stanford, Indiana, NYU, Temple, etc.
Here's a list of universities and educational institutions with facilities and programs in SL. Also, numerous libraries and museums are there.
SL offers opportunity for using simulations to prepare for real-world experiences in a safe environment -- to enhance experiential learning, to allow individuals to practice skills, to conduct research, to try new ideas, to learn from mistakes. The virtual world seems to have almost unlimited potential.
Here's the Second Life education website.
Second Life is the cutting edge of social networking. MySpace and Facebook are older-technology now – static Web pages. SL takes the idea of social networking to a new state of the art.
Libraries
In addition to the universities and colleges operating in SL, there are countless libraries and library systems operating there now.
For instance, there is a huge group of 250 libraries in Illinois known as Alliance Library System. They recently celebrated one year of operation in SL with a video, which you can see on YouTube: Alliance Library Second Life One-Year BDay
That YouTube page also has links to other Second Life library videos, such as: Tour of Info Island and Second Life Libraries
Another YouTube video is by the SJSU SLIS folks: Second Life Reference
Recently, TAP Information Services and Alliance Library System started planning for the future of libraries in virtual worlds.
They formed a group called Virtual Worlds and Libraries Alliance (VWLA). They have monthly programs on the future of libraries and librarianship in virtual worlds.
One of their goals is to investigate and share information about virtual world applications for libraries. Articles, websites and other info will be shared via VWLA. The idea is to stay on top of library-related technology, and to study and share new platforms and what can be done with them.
They also are planning a conference in Second Life in 2008 for librarians from all over the country and even around the world, who are interested in SL and services for virtual worlds.
An important big-city system, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, sponsors the Eye4You Alliance Island in Teen Second Life.
The Eye4You blog recaps what the alliance did with and for teens in 2007.
Mass media
In our professional field, mass media have taken to Second Life with gusto. Here are URLs for articles on Second Life in Business Week, Fortune and CNN:
Not just books and mortar
There are other interest areas in SL besides education, of course.
SL is a pastime for many.
While SL itself is not a game -- no game rules, no scoring, no winners, no losers -- there are all kinds of organized sports, as well as bowling alleys, golf courses, scuba diving, skiing, movie theaters, sound stages for music festivals, auditoriums for speakers and concerts, parks and gardens, stores with all kinds of ordinary merchandise, and resident-built places for virtually any other human activity.
For instance, the first thing the professor built in Second Life was a large public park with numerous attractions on land next to the ocean.
Exploring the virtual world is very popular
There are lots of ways to get around and explore SL. You can walk, jump, ride, swim, drive, roller skate, dance, fly and even teleport.
The professor writes an occasional blog Second Edition with feature stories about things he finds interesting in SL (and has time to write about).
In-world research
As a platform for innovation, Second Life is limited only by the imagination.
An example is the SL campus of UNCP intended to enrich mass communication and other curriculum offerings and experiment with new program delivery methods.
Students and faculty can do research inside SL, looking into the various roles mass media play in the virtual world amidst its unusual and interesting areas of cultural, political and commercial life.- What is the role of mass communication in this virtual society?
- What is the history of journalism here?
- Is there freedom of the press in Second Life?
Those magic words: it's free
SL software is free and easy to use and anyone can become a resident for no charge. It can cost nothing to continue to participate.
A basic membership account is free, and includes access to media in-world as well as events, shopping, building, scripting -- everything you can do in Second Life.
The vast majority of residents are in SL on free basic membership accounts. Out of some 13 million accounts, about 100,000 have what are called premium accounts. They have that kind of account so they can own land.
An aside on money...
Of course, it's possible to spend money in SL purchasing personal luxuries such as fancy hair or clothing.
The money in Second Life is linden dollars. Residents can earn lindens working at jobs in Second Life. Here's a blog post Some ways to make money.
On the other hand, many simply purchase quantities of Linden dollars at a rate of around US$4 per L$1,000. That's right, you can get 1,000 Linden dollars for 4 U.S. dollars.
Suppose you were to buy a woman's clothing outfit for L$100. You would have paid merely 40 cents in real-world money. That's why people rank shopping very high on the list of things to do in Second Life... right after exploring the beautiful scenery.
Even more information...
The UNCP Newswire featured a Journalism class in SL: UNCP journalism class gains experience in virtual world
The UNCP internal newsletter Brave Bulletin had told the story UNCP booth wins 'best in show' at virtual college fair
The Pine Needle has published three stories on Second Life experiences by mass comm students:
UNCP journalism students research Second Life
UNCP students work at virtual campus
BraveView: Virtual life can be better than reality for some
Your professor writes an occasional feature story about SL in his blog called Second Edition.
Rich Desoto, a popular singer/songwriter in Second Life, wrote in his blog a response to coverage in Second Edition. Second Edition Covers Desoto.
Second Life is operated by Linden Lab of California. They have a Second Life website.
Last yeat, Linden Lab asked your professor to submit an entry on his SL activities to the Second Life Wiki
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